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HANDBOOK o/ ALL 
DENOMINATIONS 



CONTAINING AN ACCOUNT OF THEIR OR- 
IGIN AND HISTORY; A STATEMENT OF 
THEIR FAITH AND USAGES; TOGETHER 
WITH THE LATEST STATISTICS ON THEIR 
ACTIVITIES, LOCATION, AND STRENGTH 

NINETEEN FIFTEEN 



PREPARED BY M. PHELAN 



NASHVILLE, TENN. 

DALLAS.TEX.: RICHMOND, VA. 

PUBLISHING HOUSE OF THE M. E. CHURCH, SOUTH 

SMITH & LAMAR, AGENTS 

1915 



^Tf/sy 



Copyright, 1915 

BY 

Smith & Lamar 



4 



o2£ 



CGI 291915 

i)CI.A414313 



^\^ 

&":_ CONTENTS. 

r (> Page. 

^ j^ Introduction 7 

. ^ Adventists 9 

Advent Christians ii 

^, Church of God ii 

% Evangelical Adventists ii 

5 Seventh-Day Adventists lo 

^ The Churches of God in Jesus Christ ii 

The Life and Advent Union ii 

Baptists 12 

Baptist Church of Christ 29 

Freewill Baptists 27 

General Baptists 28 

Old School, or Primitive, Baptists 29 

Original Freewill Baptists 28 

Seventh-Day Baptists 27 

Six-Principle Baptists 26 

The Separate Baptists 29 

Two-Seed-in-the-Spirit-Predestinarian 30 

United Baptists 29 

' Brethren Churches 31 

Plymouth Brethren 34 

River Brethren 35 

The Dunkards 31 

Catholic Apostolic (Irvingites) 36 

Catholics 37 

Christadelphians 38 

Christians, or Christian Connection 38 

Christian Catholic Church in Zion (Dowie) 41 

Christian Scientists ' 42 

Christian Union Churches 47 

Church of God and Saints of Christ (Colored) 50 

Church of the New Jerusalem (Swedenborgian) 51 

Churches of God (The Winebrennerians) 48 

Churches of the Living God (Colored) 50 

3 



HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

Page. 

Communistic Societies 52 

The Amana Society 52 

The Church Triumphant (Koreshanity) 53 

The Ephrata Community 54 

The Oneida Community 54 

The Shakers, or the Millennial Church 55 

congregationalists 56 

Disciples of Christ 60 

United Christian Conference of the Disciples of Christ. 71 

Evangelical Churches 72 

Faith Associations 76 

Friends 73 

Friends of the Temple 78 

German Evangelical Protestants 78 

German Evangelical Synod 79 

Greek Catholic, or Eastern Orthodox, Church 79 

Jewish Congregations 82 

Latter-Day Saints, or Mormons 85 

Lutherans 95 

Mennonites , 99 

Methodists loi 

Millennial Dawnists, or Russellites 127 

Moravians (Unitas Fratrem) 130 

Pentecostal Church of the Nazarene 133 

Presbyterians 134 

Associate Church of North America 148 

Cumberland Presbyterian, Colored 148 

General Synod of the Presbyterian Church 147 

Reformed Presbyterian Church in the United States 

and Canada 148 

The Associate Reformed Synod of the South 148 

The Cumberland Presbyterians 145 

The Presbyterian Church, U. S 144 

The Presbyterian Church, U. S. A 143 

The Reformed Presbyterian Synod 147 

The United Presbyterian Church. 147 

The Welsh Calvinistic 148 

Protestant Episcopalians 151 

Reformed Episcopal 156 

4 



HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

Page. 

Reformed Bodies 157 

Christian Reformed Church 159 

Reformed Church in the United States 159 

The Hungarian Reformed 160 

The Reformed Church in America 158 

Roman Catholics 161 

Salvation Army 176 

Volunteers of America 178 

Schwenckfelders 179 

Social Brethren 179 

Spiritualists 180 

Unitarians 182 

United Brethren 186 

Universalists 188 

5 



INTRODUCTION. 

I HAVE gone over the manuscript of Mr. Phelan's 
Handbook of All Denominations, and I find it 
exceedingly well done. It gives a succinct account 
of the origin and the growth and the distinctive 
doctrines and polity, as well as a statement of the 
present status and strength, of each of the numerous 
and various sects or denominations of Christendom 
to-day. This is done in alphabetical order, making 
it easy of reference. 

The manual is so serviceable and so convenient 

and so informing that I have already decided to use 

it as a textbook in my classes in Church historv in 

the Southern Methodist University. 

Gross Alexander. 
Nashville, Tenn., July 29, 1915. 

7 



HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMI 
NATIONS. 



ADVENTISTS. 

This is the general name of a family of denomina- 
tions whose leading tenet is a belief in the proxi- 
mate and personal second coming of Christ. The 
movement began in Massachusetts in 1831, under 
the leadership of William Miller, who previously 
had been a member of the Baptist Church. As a 
result of much study of the prophecies, Miller be- 
came convinced that the second coming of Christ 
was near at hand, and he began to lecture on the 
subject. In 1833 he published a pamphlet entitled 
"Evidences from Scripture and History of the Sec- 
ond Coming of Christ about the Year 1843 ^^^ of His 
Personal Reign of One Thousand Years." Miller 
made many converts to his views, and the doctrine 
announced in his pamphlet was widely proclaimed. 
Upon the failure of his prophecy for the year 1843, 
he fixed 1844 — to be exact, October 22 of that year 
— as the date of the second advent. When this 
prophecy failed, his followers became divided. It is 
estimated that at the time of Miller's death (1849) 
they numbered 50,000. As a result of various divi- 
sions, there are now six bodies of Adventists, who, 
as a rule, simply await the second coming of Christ 
without attempting to fix a date for it. All hold, 
however, that it Is near at hand, and they generally 

9 



HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

look for the personal reign of Christ on earth. All 
agree also in practicing immersion as the mode of 
baptism. The following bodies represent the pres- 
ent divisions of Adventism : 

I. Seventh-Day Adventists. — ^These constitute the 
largest and best organized body of Adventists. The 
branch was organized in New Hampshire in 1845 
by a company of Miller's followers, who adopted 
the belief that the seventh day of the week should 
be observed as the Sabbath. They hold that all the 
dead sleep in unconsciousness until the resurrection 
— a doctrine popularly known as "soul-sleeping" — 
when the righteous will be raised to eternal life and 
the wicked destroyed. Foot-washing is practiced 
among them. Members are expected to contribute 
a tenth of their income to the support of the Church. 
Local congregations are presbyterian in government; 
Congregations are organized into conferences, and 
these send representatives to a general conference, 
which meets annually. There are no settled pastors, 
but traveling evangelists visit the various congre- 
gations. The Seventh-Day branch, in common with 
other branches, devotes much attention to questions 
of diet and health, and they have built a number of 
sanitariums. The headquarters of the denomination 
were formerly at Battle Creek, Mich., but in 1903 
were removed to Washington, D. C, where pub- 
lishing interests are maintained. The membership 
is most numerous in the States of Michigan, Cali- 
fornia, Kansas, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, and 
Wisconsin, in the order named ; but adherents are 
found in smaller numbers in nearly all the States. 
Missionary work is carried on in Europe, Asia, Af- 

10 



HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

rica, and Australia. Statistics, 1914 : Ministers, 528 ; 
churches, 1,913; members, 68,303. 

2. Advent Christians. — Formed in 1861. They 
agree with the Seventh-Day body in holding that 
the dead are unconscious and that the wicked will 
be destroyed. But they observe Sunday as the Sab- 
bath. They are strongest in the New England 
States. Statistics, 1906: Ministers, 528; churches, 
550; members, 26,799. 

3. Evangelical Adventists. — This is the oldest 
branch and claims to be the original body. These 
differ from all other Adventists in holding that the 
dead are conscious and that the wicked will suffer 
eternal punishment. Statistics, 1906: Ministers, 8; 
churches, 18; members, 481. 

4. Church of God. — A branch of the Seventh-Day 
Adventists, which seceded in 1866 in protest against 
accepting Mrs. Ellen G. White as an inspired 
prophetess. The body has its center at Stanberry, 
Mo. Statistics, 1906: Ministers, 32; churches, 20; 
members, 611. 

5. The Life and Advent Union. — A small New 
England body, existing since 1848. Statistics, 1906: 
Ministers, 12 ; churches, 12 ; members, 509. 

6. The Churches of God in Jesus Christ. — Known 
also as Age-to-Come Adventists. They believe in 
the restitution of all things, with Christ enthroned 
as King on earth. They are found chiefly in the 
Middle West. Statistics, 1913 : Ministers, 61 ; 
churches, 66; members, 2,224. Gain, 1913: Min- 
isters, 3; churches, 4; members, 100. 

Statistics for all Adventist bodies : Ministers, 
1,169; churches, 2,579; members, 98,927. 

II 



HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

BAPTISTS. 

"With the first decade of the seventeenth century 
we reach soHd ground in Baptist history. Before 
that the history is more or less a matter of con- 
jecture, and our conclusions are open to doubt; but 
after that we have an unbroken succession of Bap- 
tist Churches, established by indubitable docu- 
mentary evidence."''' 

The first Baptist Church that is known to have 
existed was formed in Holland in 1608 and was 
composed of English Separatists who had fled 
thither to escape persecution. Their leader, the 
Rev. John Smyth, there became acquainted with the 
Mennonite theory of the Church. He adopted and 
annotmced the view that a Scriptural Church 
should consist of the regenerate only, who have 
been baptized on a personal profession of faith. 
His rejection of infant baptism led to his being dis- 
fellowshiped by his flock. He then, with Thomas 
Helwys and thirty-six others, formed a Church 
after his views. Smyth rebaptized himself and the 
others by affusion. A Confession of Faith was is- 
sued, Arminian in theology, but distinct in its claim 
that a Church should be composed only of baptized 
believers and that "only such should taste of the 
Lord's Supper." Smyth was soon afterwards ex- 
pelled from the Church he had formed on account 
of Pelagian views, and the congregation broke up. 
A part of the company, led by Thomas Helwys, re- 

*H. C Vedder, "A Short History of the Baptists," a book 
described as of "scholarly accuracy," and for this reason it is 
followed mainly in tracing the early history of the Baptists. 

12 



HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

turned to England and in i6ii formed in London 
the first Church of this faith on EngHsh soil. They 
came to be called General Baptists on account of 
their belief in a general, or universal, atonement. 
In 1644 there were forty-seven of these congrega- 
tions in England. 

The Particular Baptists originated in 1633, when 
several members of a Separatist congregation in 
London withdrew, on account of their disbelief in 
infant baptism, and formed a new congregation. 
In 1640 there was a further division in this second 
congregation when a part of the membership with- 
drew and adopted immersion as the mode of bap- 
tism. There being none of their number who had 
received such baptism, and "none having so prac- 
ticed it in England to professed believers," they 
sent one of their number, Richard Blunt, to Holland 
to receive immersion at the hands of the Mennonites 
(who had adopted immersion in 1619). Blunt re- 
turned to England and began practicing immersion 
in 1641. In 1644 seven Churches of this branch 
united in a Confession of Faith. These congrega- 
tions came to be called the Calvinistic, or Particular, 
Baptists on account of their belief in a limited 
atonement. 

The name Baptist as a denominational title was 
first used about 1644 and was applied only to those 
congregations which practiced immersion. The 
Arminian, or General, Baptists gradually adopted 
the practice of Immersion, although some of their 
congregations continued to baptize by affusion as 
late as 1653. 

The Confession of Faith adopted in 1644 is one 
13 



HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

of the chief landmarks of Baptist history. It was 
composed of fifty articles. It declares baptism to 
be "an ordinance of the New Testament, to be dis- 
pensed upon persons professing faith," and that 
only such should be admitted to the Lord's Supper. 
"The way and manner of dispensing this ordinance 
is dipping or plunging the body under water; it 
being a sign, it must answer the thing signified, 
which is that interest the saints have in the death, 
burial, and resurrection of Christ." The Confession 
is explicit in the advocacy of religious liberty as the 
right, and of good citizenship as the duty, of every 
Christian man. 

Baptists did not themselves enjoy the religious 
liberty which they advocated. Following the 
Restoration in 1660, Baptists, with other Dissenters, 
were harshly treated. If they kept perfectly quiet, 
they were not molested; but if they assembled for 
.religious meetings, they became violators of the 
law, and the man who preached to them usually suf- 
fered severe penalties. The best-known victim of 
such treatment was John Bunyan. Although Bun- 
yan was never an orthodox Baptist (he repudiated 
the name and wished to be called simply a Christian 
and was guilty of numerous other deflections from 
Baptist practice), he is generally classed as a Bap- 
tist. He spent at different times nearly thirteen 
years in prison for the crime of preaching. It was 
to his third and last imprisonment that we owe his 
immortal allegory, "The Pilgrim's Progress." 

After 1689 Baptists were given a larger measure 
of toleration than they had ever known, but instead 
of growth there followed a period of languishment 

14 



HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

and decay. Fifty years after the passage of the 
Act of Toleration the Baptists were scarcely more 
numerous than they had been before toleration was 
granted, while as to their spiritual condition "they 
had dwindled to a painful state of deadness and in- 
efficiency." Extreme Calvinistic views came to pre- 
vail in the Particular Churches, which discouraged 
all evangelistic efforts among the unconverted. 
Among the General Baptists, Socinian views made 
rapid progress, and the Churches became largely 
Unitarian in their beliefs. This was followed by 
worldliness, lax discipline, and superficial preaching, 
and the members fell away in large numbers. 

A new era in Baptist history began as a result of 
the Wesleyan revival of the eighteenth century. 
Baptists participated in the general awakening, and 
there began a new era of growth, of zeal, and of 
missionary activity which has continued to the pres- 
ent time. The greatest name belonging to this 
period of Baptist history is William Carey, who 
combined the occupations of cobbler, school-teacher, 
and Baptist preacher. Carey became awakened on 
the condition of the heathen and the duty of Chris- 
tians to go to their relief. An illustration of the Cal- 
vinistic temper of the age is found in the authentic 
story of how once, when Carey attempted to speak 
on the subject next to his heart to a Baptist gather- 
ing, he was sternly told to "sit down, young man. 
When the Lord gets ready to convert the heathen, 
he will do it without your help or mine." But 
Carey found a different hearing at the meeting of 
his association at Nottingham May 30, 1792, when 
he was appointed preacher. His discourse, based 

IS 



HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

upon Isaiah xliv. 2, 3, kindled a fire in a few hearts 
which resulted in the same year in the organization 
of the English Baptist Missionary Society. In June 
of the following year Carey himself led the way into 
the foreign field, spending the remainder of his life 
in India. Carey is justly regarded as the father of 
modern missions ; for, though the Baptists were not 
the first in modern times to engage in this work, 
"it was Carey and his work that drew the attention 
of all Christians to it and quickened the Christian 
conscience and that gave the missionary cause a 
great forward impulse which it has never since 
lost." 

The more notable features of English Baptist 
history during the last century include the forma- 
tion of the Baptist Union of Great Britain and Ire- 
land in 1813. It is a home missionary and social 
organization and is the most representative body in 
the United Kingdom. In 1891 the long-separated 
General and Particular Baptists became one body. 
The century also witnessed a change among English 
Baptists with regard to the communion and terms 
of membership. According to Vedder (and other 
authorities agree), Baptist principles are not now 
strictly upheld and practiced in England. Large 
numbers of Baptist Churches have become "open" 
on the communion question, and many Churches 
also have a "mixed" membership — that is, Pedo- 
baptists are received on the same terms with Bap- 
tists. "In many so-called Baptist Churches of Eng- 
land the ordinance of baptism [immersion] is sel- 
dom or never administered. ... In short, so ef- 
fectually Is the Church disguised as frequently to 

16 



HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

be reckoned by both Baptists and Independents in 
their statistics." The Baptist Churches in Wales, 
Scotland, and Ireland, however, for the most part 
adhere to traditional Baptist practices. Ireland has 
never been a congenial soil for Baptists. After more 
than two centuries of struggle, the island contains 
less than three thousand Baptists. The entire king- 
dom, however, has never produced a more illustrious 
Baptist than Alexander Carson, the Irish scholar, 
who gave to the denomination its classic work on 
baptism. 

The American Baptist Yearbook for 1914 gives 
the following statistics for Great Britain and Ire- 
land: 

England: Number of churches, 1,988; ordained ministers, 
1,367; members, 263,781. 

Ireland: Churches, 42; ministers, 26; members, 2,881. 

Scotland: Churches, 151; ministers, 134; members, 21,592. 

Wales and Monmouthshire: Churches, 934; ministers, 589; 
members, 125,402. 

For all Europe, including Great Britain, etc., there are 
reported 616,762 members. Russia leads among Continental 
countries, with 60,295; followed by Sweden, 53,828; Germany, 
44,338; and Hungary, 24,428. 

Australasia has 29,691 members. 

The Baptist Churches in America are not directly 
descended from the EngHsh Baptists, but owe their 
origin to an independent movement. Roger Wil- 
liams, an English Separatist, on coming to the 
colony of Massachusetts in 163 1, became at once a 
disturbing element to the authorities on account of 
his advanced Puritan views. Williams stoutly advo- 
cated the principle that the Church and the State 
should be separate and independent each of the 
2 17 



HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

other and that civil magistrates had no right to en- 
force worship nor punish breaches of the first table 
of the law, those commandments that relate to the 
worship of God. It is not at all certain that Wil- 
liams imbibed these notions from the English Bap- 
tists nor that he even knew of their holding such 
doctrines. 

In spite of his views, Williams was at one time 
minister of the Church at Salem. But his pastorate 
was cut short by his being summoned before the 
court in Boston and condemned to banishment, the 
decree beginning: "Whereas Mr. Roger Williams, 
one of the elders of the Church at Salem, hath 
broached and divulged new and dangerous opinions 
against the authority of magistrates." To escape 
deportation WiUiams made his way in midwinter 
through the wilderness, accompanied by a few ad- 
herents, bought land of the Indians, and founded 
the colony of Providence on the principle of civil 
and religious liberty. He soon abandoned his Pedo- 
baptist views, and on the site now occupied by 
Providence, R. L, he organized the first Church 
of the Baptist faith in America (1639). Williams 
was baptized (probably by affusion) by Ezekiel 
Holliman, one of his company, and he in turn bap- 
tized Holliman and eleven others. Williams later 
became doubtful of the authority of what he had 
done and withdrew from the Church he had formed, 
preferring to be called through the remainder of 
his life merely a *'seeker." The Providence Church 
was divided in 1652, a colony going out to form a 
"Six-Principle" Baptist Church. The original, or 
regular, body became extinct shortly afterwards. 

18 



HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

In 1771 the Six-Principle Church was divided, one 
branch now bearing the title of the First Baptist 
Church of Providence. 

A company of Welsh Baptist immigrants founded 
the first Baptist Church in Massachusetts in 1665. 
The laws of this colony were made very strict 
against the Baptists, and until 1691 persons of this 
faith were subjected to severe persecutions. In- 
stances are on record of ministers not only being 
fined for preaching against infant baptism, but some 
were "well whipped." Not until 1833 were dissent- 
ing Churches in Massachusetts made free from 
taxation for the support of the "State Church." 

The most important and influential of the early 
Baptist centers was the group of Churches in and 
around Philadelphia, the first Church dating from 
1688. In this section Baptists made rapid progress. 
The first Association of Churches was the Philadel- 
phia Association, organized in 1707, composed of 
twelve Churches. This Association later included 
Churches in New York colony and as far south as 
the Carolinas. The "Philadelphia Confession of 
Faith," adopted by this Association in 1742, was 
strongly Calvinistic and proved a turning point in 
the history of American Baptists, as thenceforth 
this type of theology held the day. Up to this time 
the Arminian Baptists had been the stronger, es- 
pecially in New England. The Philadelphia Asso- 
ciation soon became the leading body among the 
American Baptists, a position it has not wholly lost 
to this day. "Pretty much everything good in our 
history," to use the words of a Baptist author, "from 

19 



HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

1700 to 1850 may be traced to its initiative or active 
cooperation." 

The Great Awakening, beginning in 1734, gave 
powerful impetus to Baptist evangelistic effort and 
home missionary work. But the new movement met 
serious opposition in the denomination, and two 
parties arose — the "Regulars," who disparaged re- 
vivals, and the "New Lights," who fell in with the 
methods of Whitefield. The revival came to be 
generally accepted, resulting in a rapid growth, par- 
ticularly in the South. Baptist beginnings in the 
South were less early than in the North and New 
England; but by 1800, of forty-six associations in 
the country, twenty were in the South Atlantic 
States and seven beyond the Alleghanies. The 
number of Baptists in the country at this date, as 
estimated by the Philadelphia Association, was 
100,000, distributed among 1,200 Churches. The 
American Baptist Home Mission Society was 
formed in 1832. 

The work of foreign missions was undertaken by 
American Baptists in answer to a clear providential 
summons. In 1812 several missionaries, among 
them Adoniram Judson and his wife, were sent out 
to India by the Congregational Board. On the way 
out Judson and his wife changed their views on the 
subject of baptism. Upon arriving at Calcutta they 
sought out some English Baptist missionaries who 
were laboring there and were immersed. Another 
American missionary, Luther Rice, arriving on a 
later ship, joined them In their new faith. By a 
change of faith they had severed their relation with 
the Congregational Board. There was no Baptist 

20 



HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

Board in America and no interest in foreign mis- 
sions. It was resolved that Rice should return to 
America, relate the story of these new conversions, 
and throw the new mission upon the Baptists. 
Rice reached Boston in September, 1813; and as a 
result of the interest awakened by his story there 
was formed at Philadelphia in May, 1814, the Gen- 
eral Convention of the Baptist Denomination in the 
United States for Foreign Missions. Judson had 
in the meantime gone to Burma, and there the first 
American Baptist foreign mission was established. 

Controversy arising out of this new missionary 
movement produced a division into two parties — 
Missionary Baptists, who advocated foreign mis- 
sions, and antimission Baptists, who took the name 
of Primitive Baptists (see below). The latter were 
at first equal, if not superior, in numbers to the 
former. Another controversy which seriously af- 
fected the Baptist Churches of the South and West 
about 181 5 was the preaching of Alexander Camp- 
bell and his followers. (See Disciples.) All the 
Churches of the Mahoning Association, Ohio, and 
many other Churches and scores of Baptist preach- 
ers went over to the new movement. A period of 
bitter controversy followed, and most of the 
Churches in the territory of the movement were 
divided. 

The division of the Baptists into Northern and 
Southern occurred in 1844 and grew out of the 
slavery question. The immediate occasion of the 
separation was action taken by the Mission Boards, 
Home and Foreign, both of which at the time of the 
offending action had a majority of Northern Bap- 

21 



HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

tists in attendance. In 1844 the Foreign Board de- 
clared that it would not appoint a slaveholder as a 
missionary. This was followed in April, 1845, by- 
resolutions adopted by the Home Board declaring 
it to be "expedient that the members of the society 
should hereafter act in separate organizations at 
the South and at the North in promoting the ob- 
jects which were originally contemplated by the 
society." As a result of these declarations, in re- 
sponse to a call issued by the Virginia Foreign Mis- 
sion Society, three hundred and ten delegates from 
the Southern Churches met in Augusta, Ga., in 
May, 1845, ^^^ organized the Southern Baptist 
Convention. This Convention established two 
boards, one for foreign missions and one for home 
missions. 

Since the settlement of the slavery question there 
have been occasional efforts made for a reunion of 
the Northern and Southern Baptists, but they have 
met with little favor either North or South. "But 
Northern and Southern Baptists are not, as some 
apparently delight to say, two separate denomina- 
tions. The Churches, both North and South, hold 
substantially one system of doctrine, agree in all 
important points of practice, receive and dismiss 
members from each other without question, and are 
in full, unrestricted, uninterrupted intercommunion," 
says H. C. Vedder. 

While this is true, each branch — including the 
Colored Baptist branch, which is classed as "Regu- 
lar" — maintains its own separate Church activities. 
Besides a general convention for each body and 
general agencies of these conventions, there are 

22 



HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 



State conventions now organized in every State, 
which promote State missions and other local in- 
terests. The educational work of the Baptists, be- 
ginning as far back as 1756, has had a remarkable 
development since 1850. The leading educational 
institutions of the Northern Baptists are : Brown 
University, Providence, R. I., chartered as Rhode 
Island College in 1764; Colby College, Waterville, 
Me.; Colgate University, Hamilton, N. Y. ; Des 
Moines College, Des Moines, la.; Denison Univer- 
sity, Granville, Ohio; Baptist Union Theological 
Seminary, Morgan Park, 111. ; Rochester Seminary, 
Rochester, N. Y. ; and Newton Theological Institu- 
tion, Newton Center, Mass. The University of 
Chicago, while its charter conditions that no reli- 
gious tests shall ever be exacted from professors or 
students, yet provides that the president of the uni- 
versity and two-thirds of the trustees shall be mem- 
bers of Regular Baptist Churches. It has the largest 
endowment of any educational institution but two 
in the United States. Vassar College, Pough- 
keepsie, N. Y., is the best endowed college for wom- 
en in the world. Baylor University, Waco, Tex., 
Furman University, Greenville, S. C, Mercer Uni- 
versity, Macon, Ga., and Shorter College, Rome, 
Ga., together with the Southern Baptist Theological 
Seminary, Louisville, Ky., are the leading educa- 
tional institutions of the Southern Baptists. All 
told, the Regular Baptists, Northern, Southern, and 
Colored, control about one hundred colleges and 
universities. 

Baptists have no Confession of Faith accepted 
as such ; but many associations and local Churches, 

23 



HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

particularly in the South, frequently publish a state- 
ment of Baptist principles. These generally follow 
the Philadelphia Confession or another known as 
the New Hampshire Confession, which is briefer. 
While the Philadelphia Confession is as baldly Cal- 
vinistic as the Westminster Confession, which it 
copies almost verbally in many of its articles, Bap- 
tists of the present day emphasize only the "Perse- 
verance of Saints" article of the Calvinistic faith. 
From a published address by Dr. R. S. MacArthur 
the following summary is taken as an expression of 
Baptist beliefs: "A fundamental principle of the 
Baptists, and one formerly held by them only, is 
that a man's salvation depends solely on personal 
faith in Christ and the resultant change in inward 
character and not on baptism and other Church 
ordinances. They affirm that faith must be per- 
sonal, that no man can believe for another, no parent 
for a child, and that, therefore, the Church is not 
made up of believers and their children, except so 
far as the children are themselves believers. They 
administer baptism only to those who profess faith 
in Christ and give evidence in daily life of having 
been converted. They administer Immersion, the 
baptism of the apostolic Church, the truly catholic 
baptism, and when this Is Impracticable they let the 
convert die without baptism. Baptists do not be- 
lieve that baptism Is essential to salvation, but they 
believe that salvation Is essential to baptism. . . . 
If there Is ever organic unity, it will begin at the 
baptistery." 

Baptist Churches are defined as "bodies of bap- 
tized believers, with pastors and deacons, cove- 

24 



HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

nanted together for religious worship and reHgious 
work." Only those '*of like faith and order" are in- 
vited to partake of the Lord's Supper. Churches 
are congregational in government, but congrega- 
tions are associated in religious work, and there is 
a strong fraternal tie between different Churches. 
Men are ordained to the pastorate by councils com- 
posed of ministers and representatives of neighbor- 
ing Churches. No association or general meeting 
of any kind has any legislative authority or any 
power to bind local Churches or members. 

The following statistics from the American Bap- 
tist Yearbook, 1914, show the number of Regular 
Baptists by States. The figures marked thus * in- 
clude colored members, usually reported as separate 
associations; the figures for the Southern States 
represent white Baptists only : 

Alabama 199,834 Maryland 12,829 

Arizona 1,936 Massachusetts 80,186* 

Arkansas 111,869 Michigan 45,402* 

California 33,534* Minnesota 25,411* 

Colorado 15414* Mississippi , 152,665 

Connecticut 26,589* Missouri 183,589 

Delaware 2,870* Montana 3,438* 

District of Columbia. 32,810* Nebraska 16,619* 

Florida 47,824 Nevada 447* 

Georgia 278,660 New Hampshire 9,209* 

Idaho 4,833* New Jersey 67,341* 

Illinois 161,074* New Mexico 5,077 

Indiana 78,709* New York 168,659* 

Iowa 46,077* North Carolina 245,306 

Kansas 54,4i2* North Dakota 7,i99* 

Kentucky 235,158 Ohio 95,020* 

Louisiana 61,084 Oklahoma 73,553 

Maine 21,289* Oregon 14,608* 

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HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

Pennsylvania 141,125* Vermont 8,994* 

Rhode Island 19,116* Virginia 158,133 

South Carolina 139,713 Washington 17,006* 

South Dakota 7,681* West Virginia 54,623 

Tennessee 186,584 Wisconsin 20,300* 

Texas 327,108 Wyoming i,436* 

Utah 1,129* 

Germans, Scandinavians, and other Regular Bap- 
tists of foreign nationality are included in the above 
figures. The number of colored Baptists in the 
Southern States, reported separately, is 2,093,337, 
of which Georgia leads with 308,980. Including 
both white and colored Baptists, the five States that 
lead in membership are all Southern, as follows : 
Georgia, 587,640; Texas, 490,127; Alabama, 457,387; 
Virginia, 413,031 ; North Carolina, 406,558. The 
banner Baptist States of the North are New York, 
Illinois, and Pennsylvania, in the order named. 

Grand total of all Regular Baptists for Conti- 
nental United States, 1914, 5,849,408. Estimated 
increase in membership, 1914, 122,125. Number of 
associations, 1,974; churches, 51,997; ordained min- 
isters, 36,109. 

Other Baptist Bodies. 

Besides the Regular Baptist bodies, which are 
classified as (i) Regular, North, (2) Regular, South, 
and (3) Regular, Colored, there are ten other Bap- 
tist bodies, as follows : 

4. Six-Principle Baptists. — They take their name 
from their creed, founded upon Hebrews vl. I and 2, 
which consists of six principles : Repentance from 
dead works, faith toward God, doctrine of baptism, 
the laying on of hands, resurrection of the dead, and 

26 



HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

eternal judgment. The first Church was organized 
in Rhode Island in 1652. There are eighteen or- 
ganizations, of which twelve are in Rhode Island. 
There are reported 731 members. 

5. Seventh-Day Baptists are distinguished mainly 
by their observance of the seventh day as the Sab- 
bath. They first appeared in England in 1676, the 
first Church founded still surviving. The first 
American Church was founded in Rhode Island in 
1671. They have a foreign missionary society and 
support a publishing house and two colleges. The 
denomination is represented in twenty-four States, 
being most numerous in New York, Wisconsin, and 
Rhode Island. They report seventy-six churches 
and 7,927 members. 

6. Freewill Baptists. — Originated In New Hamp- 
shire in 1780, when Benjamin Randall, a Congrega- 
tional minister, joined by two Baptist ministers, or- 
ganized a Church. They rejected the Calvinlstic 
doctrines held by the Regular Baptists ; hence their 
name. The denomination grew rapidly, but later 
lost several thousand members to the Adventist 
movement. In 1841 the Free Communion Baptists, 
a small body in New York, united with them. The 
Freewill Baptists have quarterly and annual con- 
ferences and a general conference, meeting trien- 
nlally, which has charge of all the general interests 
of the Church. A published Confession, or Treatise, 
bearing the authority of their general conference, 
sets forth their doctrines, among which are that 
"the call of the gospel is coextensive with the atone- 
ment to all men" and that "the truly regenerate are 
through manifold temptations and Infirmity In dan- 

27 



HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

ger of falling and ought, therefore, to watch and 
pray that they not make shipwreck of their faith." 
Immersion is the form of baptism ; the Lord's Sup- 
per "is the privilege and duty of all." The denomi- 
nation reported in 1906 87,898 members, found in 
nearly all the States ; but its latest report shows 
only about 65,000. This apparent falling off is due 
to the fact that the denomination is in process of 
union with the Northern Baptists, and at least one- 
third of its membership have already been incor- 
porated with the larger body and numbered with its 
membership. Negotiations looking to union began 
in 1907. The basis of union leaves differences 
"where the New Testament leaves them, to the 
teachings of the Scriptures under the guidance of 
the Holy Spirit." All the missionary activities and 
funds of the Free Church have been turned over to 
the Northern Baptist boards, and it is expected that 
the complete union of the denominations will result. 

7. Original Freewill Baptists arose in North Caro- 
lina in 1729 by forming an association separate from 
the Regular Baptists. They reject Calvinism and 
practice open communion. Foot-washing and. 
anointing the sick with oil are practiced among 
them. They are found only in the Carolinas. They 
have quarterly and annual conferences, the latter 
exercising oversight of ministers and having power 
to settle difficulties between Churches. The United 
States religious census of 1906 gives them 167 or- 
ganizations and 11,864 members. 

8. General Baptists. — These were originally simi- 
lar to the General Baptists of England, holding 
Arminian views and practicing open communion; 

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HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

but most of the early Churches of this kind in Amer- 
ica later became Calvinistic. The first association 
of General Baptists was organized in Kentucky in 
1824. They are strongest in Missouri, Indiana, Ken- 
tucky, and Illinois. They have 545 churches and 
33,600 members. 

9. The Separate Baptists date from the White- 
field revival and were originally composed of Bap- 
tists who favored that movement, separating from 
Baptists who opposed it. They are now generally 
in doctrinal agreement with the Freewill, or Free, 
Baptists. They are found only in Indiana, with 
5,180 mem.bers (1906 report). 

10. United Baptists, the result of a union of many 
Separate Baptists with Regular Baptists, this union 
occurring mainly in Kentucky and Virginia. The 
doctrinal result of the union was a modified Cal- 
vinism. Open communion is practiced, also foot- 
washing. The report for 1906 is 13,698 members. 

11. Baptist Church of Christ, organized in Ten- 
nessee in 1808. They have spread to six other 
States. They hold a modified Calvinism and prac- 
tice foot-washing. The strength of the denomina- 
tion is found mostly in the region in Tennessee 
where it originated. Report for 1906, 6,416 mem- 
bers. 

12. Old School, or Primitive Baptists. — The 
members of this denomination claim to be the orig- 
inal Baptists, from whose principles and practices all 
others have departed. This body took its rise about 
1835 in organized opposition to foreign missions, 
Sunday schools, and other ''human institutions." 
The opposition was founded in the hyper-Calvinis- 

29 



HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

tic views of the seceding Churches, it being their 
view that missionary societies, Sunday schools, etc., 
tended to make the salvation of men depend upon 
human effort rather than on divine grace. An ar- 
ticle in the original constitution of the Churches de- 
clines fellowship "with any Church or Churches 
which support any missionary, Bible, tract, or 
Sunday school society," or which advocates State 
conventions or theological schools ''formed under 
the pretense of circulating the gospel." The Primi- 
tive Baptists do not believe in an educated or sal- 
aried ministry. They practice foot-washing and 
close communion. Churches are divided in many 
localities on their Calvinistic theology, but the main 
body of the membership and ministry holds fast to 
the old doctrine of the "decrees." Churches are or- 
ganized into associations, of which there are two 
hundred and seventy-nine, fifteen of which are col- 
ored. Primitive Baptists are most numerous in the 
South, Georgia leading with 18,535 members. The 
States next in number are : Alabama, 14,903 ; Ten- 
nessee, 13,972; North Carolina, 11,740; Kentucky, 
10,665. The total for all the States is 102,311 white 
and 35,076 colored (census of 1906). 

13. Two-Seed-in-the-Spirit-Predestinarian. — These 
took their origin and name from certain theological 
speculations of Daniel Parker, a Baptist preacher 
who labored in Tennessee, Illinois, and Texas. Par- 
ker sought to explain the doctrine of election on the 
theory that a part of Eve's offspring were the seed 
of God and as such were to be saved, and a part 
were the seed of the devil and were to be lost. All 
the manifestations of good or evil in man are but 

30 



HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

the result of the infusion of particles of God or of 
the devil in them, and the Christian warfare is a 
conflict between these opposing particles. The 
Two-Seed Churches agree with the Primitive Bap- 
tists in their extreme Calvinism and in their opposi- 
tion to missions, Sunday schools, etc. The body is 
strongest in Texas, Kentucky, Arkansas, and Ten- 
nessee. They are credited with 12,851 members 
(census of 1906). 

The total number of Baptists of all bodies in the 
United States, by report of the Federal Council of 
Churches In 1914, was 6,179,622. 

The total number of Baptists In the world, by the 
American Baptist Yearbook for 1914, was 6,846,286. 



BRETHREN CHURCHES. 

Three religious families call themselves simply 
the Brethren. These are the Dunkard Brethren 
(four bodies), Plymouth Brethren (four bodies), 
and the River Brethren (three bodies). They are 
distinct In origin, but hold many principles and 
practices In common. 

The Dunkards. — ^These are otherwise known as 
Bunkers, or Tunkers, from the German word "tun- 
ken," meaning to dip, which is their mode of bap- 
tism. They are also known as German Baptist 
Brethren. The body arose during a religious awak- 
ening In Germany In the latter part of the 
seventeenth century, when many pious people be- 
came dissatisfied with the State Church. In 1708 
Alexander Mack and eight companions of like con- 

31 



HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

victions organized a society at Schwarzenau, West- 
phalia, agreeing to follow the New Testament alone 
as their guide. They began the practice of baptism 
by trine immersion, administering it to adults only. 
They gained many adherents to their ranks, and 
within a few years there were Churches with many 
members in Germany, Switzerland, and Holland. 
Persecutions arose, and, encouraged by liberal land 
grants by William Penn, within a few years prac- 
tically the entire membership emigrated to Pennsyl- 
vania. The first congregation in America was or- 
ganized at Germantown in 1723, with Peter Becker 
as minister. The first division in their ranks oc- 
curred in 1732, when a small company, led by John 
Conrad Beissel, withdrew on account of differences 
concerning the Sabbath and community of goods 
and established the Ephrata Community (see under 
^'Communistic Societies"). An important incident 
in the history of the Germantown Church was the 
editing and printing of the first German Bible in 
America, the work being done by Christopher Saur. 
Some copies of this publication are still in existence. 
The Brethren spread rapidly to the West and South 
as the country opened up, and now they are found 
in large numbers throughout the Central Western 
States, their membership being made up entirely of 
Germans. 

In behef and practice, the Dunkards undertake to 
follow the New Testament, in the main interpreting 
it literally and applying It to the minutest affairs of 
life. In receiving members, the candidate is Im- 
mersed three times in water, face forward, and In a 
kneeling posture, after which the administrator lays 

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HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

his hands upon the member's head and offers prayer. 
They take the Lord's Supper usually in the eve- 
ning, preceded by a love feast. Foot-washing is 
observed among them, during which service there 
is an exchange of the right hand of fellowship, and 
the kiss of charity is given, the sexes being sep- 
arated during the foot-washing and attendant cere- 
monies. In their relation to the world the Dunkards 
have strictly inculcated nonconformity and nonre- 
sistance. In agreement with these views they have 
generally settled in rural colonies, and they follow 
the simplest pursuits. Plainness of dress is en- 
joined, and differences among them are settled 
without going to law. They take but little interest 
in politics, are opposed to secret societies, forbid the 
use of tobacco, and have always been sternly op- 
posed to the manufacture, sale, or use of intoxicating 
liquors. 

The chief ecclesiastical body of the Dunkards is 
the annual meeting, or conference. Here all ques- 
tions pertaining to doctrine and usage are settled, 
and the action of this conference is binding upon the 
Church members. The ministry consists of bishops, 
elders, and deacons, all of whom are elected by the 
congregations. The ministers are untrained and 
usually receive no stated salary, but pursue other 
livelihoods in connection with their ministry. 

In 1882 the Dunkards suffered a division in the 
separation of the "progressive" wing of the denomi- 
nation, the immediate cause of the break being the 
expulsion in that year by the annual meeting of 
Henry R. Holsinger, a leading progressive, on the 
charge of speaking and writing disrespectfully of 
3 33 



HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

some leading members of the Church. The pro- 
gressive element in the Church were less strict in 
their association with the world and in adopting its 
customs and advocated more extensive missionary 
and educational activities. The progressives for- 
mally organized as a separate Church in a conven- 
tion held at Dayton, Ohio, in 1883, with represent- 
atives from about fifty congregations. As a result 
of the progressive agitation in the Church there 
arose the Old Order Brethren, the ultraconserva- 
tives, who opposed all change and refused to adopt 
new methods. They separated themselves from 
the main body, now called the Conservatives, in 
1881. They have no affihation with either of the 
other bodies. 

The Conservative Brethren now number (1914) 
3,009 ministers, 990 churches, and 97,000 members, 
their largest strength being in the States of Penn- 
sylvania, Indiana, Ohio, and Virginia. There are 
considerable bodies also in Missouri, Kansas, and 
Illinois. 

The progressives number (1914) 200 ministers, 
212 churches, and 20,700 members, found chiefly in 
Pennsylvania, Indiana, and Ohio. The Progressives 
have extended their missionary work to some of the 
cities, as Washington, Philadelphia, and Chicago. 

The Old Order Brethren number (1913) ^222 min- 
isters, 'J2 churches, and 3,500 members, nearly all in 
Ohio. 

Plymouth Brethren. — This sect came into ex- 
istence at Dublin, Ireland, about 1828, when one 
John Nelson Darby formed a society whose chief 
characteristic at the time was a protest against the 

34 



HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

exclusive High Church principles and alleged dead 
formalism of the Church of England. Another so- 
ciety was organized at Plymouth, England, and this 
grew into such public notice as to give rise to the 
name. The movement has extended itself through- 
out the British dominions, to the continent of Eu- 
rope, and to the United States. The Brethren are 
Calvinistic in doctrine. Millenarian views are gen- 
erally held among them. They are very exclusive 
in their practices, having no fellowship with other 
denominations. They have Sabbath gatherings for 
Bible study and the Lord's Supper, but they have 
no regular Church organization, no church build- 
ings, and no ordained ministry. Adults only are 
baptized. Divisions have occurred among them, 
growing out of questions of doctrine and discipline ; 
but none of the branches has ever taken a denomi- 
national name. For purposes of distinction they are 
classified in the United States census reports as 
Plymouth Brethren I., IL, III., and IV. The cen- 
sus reports of 1906 credit all branches with a mem- 
bership of 10,566. They are most numerous in the 
States of New York and Illinois. 

River Brethren. — These consist of several small 
congregations, found mainly in Pennsylvania. 
They resemble in doctrine and practice the Men- 
nonites, from whom it is believed they have sprung. 
Swiss immigrants formed the first organization near 
the Susquehanna River, in Pennsylvania, in 1750. 
They baptized their members in the river; hence 
the name applied to them. They baptize by trine im- 
mersion, observe foot-washing, and teach noncon- 
formity to the world. They are distinguished as : 

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HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

(i) Brethren in Christ, the most numerous and 
best-organized branch. They have district confer- 
ences and a general conference. Membership, 3,731. 

(2) Old Order, or Yorker, found in York County, 
Pa. Membership, 423. 

(3) United Zion's Children, with 749 members. 



CATHOLIC APOSTOLIC (IRVINGITES). 

In 1829-30 Rev. Edward Irving, a minister of the 
Church of Scotland, began preaching in London on 
the spiritual gifts of the apostolic Church, main- 
taining that these gifts were intended to be per- 
petual in the Church. About the same time a com- 
pany of clergymen and laymen of the Church of 
England began to meet for Scripture study on the 
second coming of Christ and the office of the Spirit 
in the Church. In February, 1830, reports came 
from Scotland that the gifts of tongues and healing 
had appeared in a certain Presbyterian family living 
near Glasgow. Upon investigation these phenomena 
were declared to be genuine. Similar manifesta- 
tions occurred in Irving's Church in London. Irving 
encouraged these demonstrations and accepted them 
as confirming his beliefs and preaching. He was 
deposed from the Church of Scotland on the charge 
of heresy. But the movement, of which he was the 
most conspicuous advocate, took shape, and in 1832 
the apostolic office was revived and filled mainly 
with the members of the Anglican Bible study cir- 
cle, above mentioned, who fell in with Irving's doc- 
trines. The result was the Catholic Apostolic 
Church, found not only in England and Scotland, 

36 



HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

but on the Continent and in the United States and 
Canada. 

The Church recognizes four orders of ministers— 
namely, apostles, prophets, evangelists, and pastors, 
or "angels." The gifts of the Holy Spirit can be 
imparted only by the laying on of the hands of these 
apostles. Doctrinally, the Church agrees with other 
evangelical bodies, but its difference lies mainly in 
its insisting upon the spiritual phenomena of the 
early Church. Where there are enough to form a 
congregation, services are held twice a day — at 6 
A.M. and 5 p.m. In the Sabbath services the Lord's 
Supper is observed with an elaborate ritual. Each 
Church is regarded as complete in itself. 

There are reported by United States census in 
1906 33 ministers, 24 churches, and 4,927 members. 
They are found mainly in the State of New York. 
There are a few churches elsewhere. There is one, 
for example, in Nashville, Tenn. 



CATHOLICS. 

The name "Catholic" Is associated in the popular 
mind only with the Roman Catholic Church. It 
was originally used to distinguish the Christian 
Church from the Jewish, the latter being restricted 
to a single nation, whereas the former was Intended 
for the world. The name has been retained by the 
Church of Rome In agreement with its claim of 
being the successor of the primitive Church; but 
Protestants deny that it is applicable to Rome any 
more than to other Christian bodies. (See "Greek 
Catholics" and "Roman Catholics.") 

37 



HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

CHRISTADELPHIANS. 

This Is a small but widely scattered body, dating 
from about 1850. John Thomas, M.D., came over 
from England in 1844. He joined the Church of the 
Disciples, but later withdrew and began to publish 
certain views concerning Churches, in which he 
expressed the belief that all denominations were 
apostate Churches. He organized a number of so- 
cieties in this country. Great Britain, and Canada. 
The societies took no name until the time of the 
Civil War, when, alleging conscientious scruples 
against military service, in order to be exempt they 
had to take a name. They chose the name of 
Christadelphians, or "Brothers of Christ." The sect 
rejects the doctrine of the Trinity, the belief in a 
devil, and personal immortality. They look for the 
millennial reign of Christ, who will take the throne 
of David in Jerusalem. They have no ordained 
ministers. They had in 1906 seventy churches and 
1,412 members, found chiefly in Massachusetts, Illi- 
nois, Virginia, and Texas. 



CHRISTIANS, OR CHRISTIAN CONNEC- 
TION. 

This body takes the name simply of "Christians" 
and is often confused with the Disciples of Christ, 
who generally call themselves by the same name ; 
but while they agree in many respects, they are in 
other respects widely different. The denomination 
now known as Christians, or (by way of distinction) 

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HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

Christian Connection, grew out of three independ- 
ent movements occurring in other Churches. 

In 1793 Rev. James O'Kelly, with twenty or thirty 
other ministers and about a thousand members, 
withdrew from the Methodist Episcopal Church. 
The defection occurred in Virginia and North Caro- 
lina and grew out of objections to the unrestricted 
appointive power of bishops and the use of creeds 
and disciplines. They first took the name of Repub- 
lican Methodists, but abandoned this title and 
adopted the name of Christians. Closely following 
this movement, but independent of it, Abner Jones, 
a Baptist physician in Vermont, led a secession 
among the Baptists. A Church was formed, taking 
the name of Christian. In 1804 a similar movement 
occurred among the Presbyterians in Kentucky, led 
by Rev. Barton W. Stone, who, with five other min- 
isters, dissolved a presbytery and agreed to be 
known as Christians only. These three movements, 
each unknown to the other, were alike in taking the 
same name and in claiming to take the Scriptures 
alone as their only creed and Christian character 
as the only test of fellowship. As Churches multi- 
plied they became acquainted, and general meet- 
ings and cooperation and fellowship developed 
among them. General organizations for promoting 
publishing, educational, and missionary work fol- 
lowed. The organization led by Stone in Kentucky 
finally (about 183 1) united with the Disciples, and 
more than fifty Churches were absorbed by this de- 
nomination. In 1854, owing to utterances against 
slavery by a general convention held in Cincinnati, 
the Churches in the South withdrew and formed a 

39 



HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

separate branch. Since 1894, however, the Southern 
Churches have been represented in the general con- 
vention, and they are now recognized as one body. 

The American Christian Convention, which meets 
every four years, is now the general representative 
body of the Church, having in charge all its general 
interests. Extensive missionary work is carried on 
in the United States, Canada, Japan, and Porto 
Rico. The denomination has about twelve colleges 
and seminaries, and a publishing house at Dayton, 
Ohio. Doctrinally, the Christians agree in accept- 
ing the Bible as their only rule of faith. They have 
never formulated a confession or statement of faith. 
They believe in the avoidance of sectarian names 
and, like the Disciples, advocate the union of all 
denominations. But, unlike the Disciples, they hold 
that Christian character is the only test of Church 
membership or fellowship. They allow large liberty 
of conscience and insist upon the right of private 
judgment in all matters of theological opinion or 
practice. They generally baptize by immersion, but 
sprinkling is allowed among them, and they will 
admit to communion and to Church membership 
those who have been baptized by affusion in other 
Churches without rebaptizing. They are congrega- 
tional in government, but have annual conferences, 
which receive and ordain ministers, but which have 
no legislative powers. 

The latest statistical reports (1914) show them to 
have 1,066 ministers, 1,360 churches, and 113,887 
members. The membership is largest in Ohio 
(25,000) and Indiana (20,000), in the North, and in 
North Caorlina (8,000) and Virginia (5,000), in the 

40 



HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

South. The denomination reports a gain in mem- 
bership of 10,985 during the past two years, but a 
decrease of sixty-three ministers during the same 
period. 



CHRISTIAN CATHOLIC CHURCH IN ZION 
(DOWIE). 

This body was organized in Chicago in 1896 by 
John Alexander Dowie. Dowie had been a Congre- 
gational minister in Australia, but, becoming con- 
vinced that he possessed the power of divine heal- 
ing, withdrew from that communion and established 
a "healing temple" in Melbourne. He came to the 
United States in 1888, first teaching his doctrines 
on the Pacific Coast, but he later made Chicago the 
center of his activities. He gathered a considerable 
following and organized them into a Church. In 
1900 he founded Zion City on the shores of Lake 
Michigan, north of Chicago, which soon became a 
thriving city, peopled entirely by Dowie's adherents. 
A college was established and many business en- 
terprises, including a large lace industry; and over 
all a theocratic government was set up, with Dowie 
at the head. An extensive propaganda was begun. 
Dowie became the idol of his followers. He en- 
titled himself the "First Apostle" and "Elijah III." 
In 1903-04 Dowie led missionary campaigns in Lon- 
don and New York, with but little success in Lon- 
don and with disastrous results in New York. His 
pompous claims and bitter antagonism to other 
Churches won him only ridicule. His followers be- 

41 



HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

came demoralized, and Dowie returned embittered 
in spirit. He found criticism and opposition to him 
at Zion City on account of his financial mismanage- 
ment of the city's affairs. Charges of immorality 
were also made. In 1905 Dowie visited Mexico and 
Texas, partly to recover his failing health and partly 
to look out a location for another colony. But dur- 
ing his absence he was deposed from the office of 
general overseer at Zion City, and Wilbur Glenn 
Voliva was chosen in his place. A receiver was ap- 
pointed for Zion City, and the colony was found to 
be bankrupt. 

The Christian CathoHcs, as Dowie named his 
communion, hold the generally accepted principles 
of Christianity, and the sacraments are observed; 
but prominence is given to the doctrine of faith- 
healing. Baptism is by trine immersion. A conse- 
cration service usually closes their meetings. At 
the head of the Church organization is the general 
overseer, then overseers for smaller organizations. 
Missionaries are called the "seventies," who go out 
two and two distributing tracts, etc. The move- 
ment had at one time (or claimed) 40,000 adherents. 
According to the best obtainable figures, at the pres- 
ent time there are not one-fourth of that number. 
The United States census figures for 1906 (the year 
following the disaster for the organization) are 
5,865 members. 

CHRISTIAN SCIENTISTS. 

The Church of Christ, Scientist, is founded upon 
a system of philosophy, religion, and medicine for- 

42 



HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

mulated by Mrs. Mary Baker G. Eddy, a full ex- 
position of which is given in her book, "Science and 
Health, with Key to the Scriptures." Mrs. Eddy 
was born in New Hampshire in 1821. In her girl- 
hood she joined the Congregational Church, the 
Church of her parents. Her educational advantages 
were limited, and, if the testimony of many of her 
classmates is true, she availed herself but poorly of 
her school days. She claims, however, to have had 
superior advantages from private tutors and to have 
learned Hebrew, Greek, and Latin. Critics outside 
the ranks of her followers declare that her unedited 
writings display the poorest literary gifts. 

As a girl Mrs. Eddy was weak in body and hys- 
terical, and at no time in her life was she ever far 
removed from physical invalidism. In early woman- 
hood she seems to have attracted some attention 
as a mesmeric and spiritualistic subject. She was 
married three times, once divorced, and in other 
ways her career was a checkered one. According 
to a friendly authority, "her whole life up to the age 
of fifty had been an utter failure, as the world 
viewed it and as many of her more intimate ac- 
quaintances estimated it; but one may search his- 
tory from the beginning and have difficulty in 
matching Mrs. Eddy's performance between the 
ages of fifty and eighty in making a million people 
accept her at her own valuation." 

In 1862 Mrs. Eddy, at that time the divorced 
widow of Dr. Patterson, her second husband, visited 
Dr. Quimby, a mental healer (or popularly called 
so) at Portland, Me. She was in such condition as 
that she "had to be helped upstairs." She claimed 

43 



HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

to have been healed and became a student and 
advocate of Quimby's teachings and methods. 
Many investigators declare that Mrs. Eddy obtained 
her doctrines from Quimby and that she obtained 
from him — some say purloined — manuscripts and 
notes on his work which became the basis of her 
books. Her followers undertake to refute these 
charges, and the founder herself impliedly asserts 
that Christian Science came to her as a revelation. 
In a letter written by Mrs. Eddy to Dr. Quimby 
in 1863 (from letters in possession of Quimby's son 
and quoted in Georgine Milmine's "Life of Mrs. 
Eddy") the following statement is made: "I am to 
all who see me a living wonder and a living monu- 
ment of your power. My explanation of your cura- 
tive principle surprises people, especially those 
whose minds are all matter." From this and other 
evidence it appears that Mrs. Eddy was indebted to 
Dr. Quimby for a cure and that he was indebted to 
her for an explanation of it, though it is not a mat- 
ter of record that the Doctor ever acknowledged the 
debt. Dr. Quimby died in 1866. Later in the same 
year Mrs. Eddy announced her discovery of "the 
first purely metaphysical system of healing since 
the days of the apostles." 

She began teaching and practicing her system, 
but for a number of years she gained adherents but 
slowly. In 1875 h^^ book appeared, the first edition 
of "Science and Health," and the following year she 
organized the first Christian Science Association 
with six pupils. In 1879 she organized the First 
Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, composed 
of twenty-six members, with herself as pastor. This 

44 



HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

became the ''Mother Church" of the movement. It 
now occupies a building costing more than $2,000,- 
000 and, according to popular report, has 45,000 
members. Other Churches were formed, called 
branches; and while the Mother Church exercises 
no superior authority over other congregations, they 
usually follow the customs and services observed 
in the Boston Church. The cult has found its fol- 
lowing mainly in the cities. New York City has 
twelve Christian Science Churches, the First Church 
congregation being housed in a temple costing more 
than $1,000,000. Chicago has nine organizations. 
Churches are found in nearly all the larger cities of 
the United States and Canada, also in London and 
Manchester, England, and Edinburgh, Scotland. 
There are Christian Science congregations also in 
most of the European countries, in Australia, South 
America, Mexico, and elsewhere. 

Mrs. Eddy's book, "Science and Health," purports 
to reveal the science of God, of life, and of man. 
God is the only reality. All mind, life, truth, love, 
goodness — and throughout her book these words 
are capitalized and apparently endowed with as 
much personality as she ever attributes to God — 
are but manifestations or reflections of God. 
"Man is inseparable from God," but it is denied that 
he is part of God; he, too, is a "reflection of God." 
It is denied that the principles of healing set forth 
in this system are the same as mental healing, faith 
cure, or healing by prayer. Sickness and all the ills 
and woes of life, including death, are unreal and 
"are to be overcome by spiritual understanding of 
divine reaHty." But the whole system is extremely 

45 



HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

metaphysical and is admittedly confusing and diffi- 
cult to those who have not embraced it. As a "key" 
to the Scriptures, one does not have to read far in 
Mrs. Eddy's book to discover, if he is familiar with 
the Bible, that he is here in a strange land. Chris- 
tian Science subverts every evangelical doctrine and 
robs the sacred Book of all its majesty and mean- 
ing. Mrs. Eddy claims to have read the Scriptures 
"through a higher than mortal sense." But, in the 
language of H. C. Sheldon ("Christian Science, So 
Called"), "she merely uses the Scriptural texts as 
pegs upon which to hang her stock phrases. Her 
exegetical notes might just as well have been at- 
tached to almost any other writings, say to pas- 
sages of the Gilgamesch Epic, written in old Baby- 
lon, or to chapters of the Upanishads, composed in 
ancient India." "Science and Health," first sent 
forth as a key to the Scriptures, has been elevated 
above them, both in the assumptions of its author 
and in the veneration of her disciples. Mrs. Eddy 
ordained the Bible and "Science and Health" as the 
"impersonal pastor" of her flock; but in Christian 
Science Churches the reader of "Science and Health" 
is called the "First Reader" and takes precedence 
over the reader of the Bible, who is designated the 
"Second Reader." In the Christian Science Church 
its founder did not scruple to displace the sacrament 
of the Lord's Supper with a "Galilean Breakfast," 
putting into it a meaning of her own. 

The Christian Science propaganda is carried on 
through a Board of Lectureship, attached to the 
Mother Church. Persons who are qualified to teach 
are given degrees, B.S.C. or D.S.C. (Bachelor 

46 



HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

or Doctor of Christian Science), and they are sent 
out to deHver pubHc lectures on the doctrines. 
There is a well organized and financed press bureau, 
which usually provides for the publication at length 
of these lectures in the press of the city where they 
are delivered. The Sunday services of the congre- 
gations consist of readings from the Bible and 
"Science and Health," hymns, prayers, and the 
benediction. The midweek service is devoted to 
testimonies and experiences. 

It is one of the rules of the denomination to give 
out no figures as to membership. According to the 
last reported figures (1907), there were 1,347 
"branches," or churches, and 85,096 members. In 
a general way it is claimed that the Church now has 
a million adherents throughout the world. The 
Clerk of the Mother Church gives out an estimate 
of an increase of about one hundred organizations, 
or new societies, a year throughout the world. Of 
the membership, females are in the majority in the 
ratio of three to one. 



CHRISTIAN UNION CHURCHES. 

These are called the Independent Churches of 
Christ in Christian Union and date their origin from 
the period of the Civil War. The movement leading 
to their formation began in Ohio under the leader- 
ship of Rev. J. V. B. Flack, a minister of the Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church, and arose in opposition to 
the enthusiasm and activity displayed among the 
Churches in support of the war. "Political preach- 
ing, parading," and patriotic demonstrations in sup- 

47 



HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

port of the government were condemned. Members 
of many Churches who disapproved of the war spirit 
in the Church were gathered into separate congrega- 
tions. The first Church of the new denomination 
was organized in IlHnois in 1863 or 1864. A con- 
vention was held in 1864 at Columbus, Ohio, where 
representatives from various denominations gath- 
ered and laid the foundation for the new Church. 
After the war closed, the Churches turned their at- 
tention to efforts to promote Christian unity. They 
occupy at the present time a position in doctrine, 
practice, and purpose similar to the Churches of 
the Christian Connection. They reported in 1914 
354 ministers, 302 churches, and 15,217 members. 
Their strength is mainly in the State of their origin, 
Ohio, but they are represented also in the States of 
Missouri, Indiana, and Iowa. 



CHURCHES OF GOD (THE WINEBREN- 
NERIANS). 

This denomination was founded by John Wine- 
brenner (hence sometimes called Winebrennerians), 
who had been previously a pastor of the German 
Reformed Church at Harrisburg, Pa. Winebren- 
ner's earnest preaching, in which he denounced all 
worldly amusements, produced a revival in and 
around Harrisburg. Its progress was opposed by 
his own people, and he was brought under charges 
by officials of his denomination. Winebrenner 
severed his relations with his charge and his 
Church, but continued to preach and to lead in the 
revival. Other ministers in sympathy with him 

48 



HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

met with him in 1830, and they adopted a basis of 
a new Church organization. The leading principles 
of the denomination as adopted at that time are: 
(i) The believers in any given place according to 
the divine order constitute one body, and these are 
God's household, or family, and should be known 
as the Church of God ; (2) the divisions into sects 
and parties under human names and creeds is con- 
trary to the New Testament; (3) the Scriptures, 
without note or comment, constitute the sole rule 
of faith and practice; and (4) there are three ordi- 
nances binding upon Christians — immersion in 
water in the name of the Trinity, washing the dis- 
ciples' feet, and partaking of bread and wine in com- 
memoration of the sufferings and death of Christ. 

The organization of the Church consists of elder- 
ships, or conferences, of which there are seventeen, 
found in as many States. There is a general elder- 
ship, composed of delegates from the lower elder- 
ships, which meets quadrennially and has charge of 
the general interests of the denomination. In local 
affairs the Churches are presbyterian in govern- 
ment; but pastors are appointed to the various 
charges by the annual elderships. In doctrine the 
Churches generally hold Arminian and premille- 
narian views. The body maintains three colleges (at 
FIndlay, Ohio, Fort Scott, Kans., and Barkeyville, 
Pa.) and a publishing house at Harrisburg, Pa. 
Extensive home missionary work is carried on, and 
missionaries are at work in India and other foreign 
fields. It has an active woman's missionary society. 

Report for 1913: Ministers, 509; churches, 595; 
members, 41,475. 

4 49 



HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

CHURCH OF GOD AND SAINTS OF CHRIST 
(COLORED). 

These are sometimes called the "Black Jews," on 
account of their fancied claim of being the de- 
scendants of the lost tribes. It is held that the lat- 
ter were originally a black people. The sect owes 
its origin to William S. Crowdy, who claimed to be 
called of God as a prophet. He founded his Church 
in Topeka, Kans., in 1897. The system of doctrine 
is presented in "Crowdy's Manual," or "The Bible 
Story Revealed." The Jewish Passover is annually 
celebrated with a mingling of Jewish and Christian 
rites. No authentic figures of the denomination are 
obtainable, but the claim is made of about one hun- 
dred churches (seven in Africa) and about 9,000 
members. The largest church and denominational 
headquarters are at Philadelphia. 



CHURCHES OF THE LIVING GOD 
(COLORED). 

There are three colored bodies reported under 
this head in the United States Census Bulletin of 
1906. No trace of them can be found in any other 
literature. In the reports of the above year they 
are classified as follows: (i) Church of the Living 
God (Christian Workers for Friendship), (2) 
Church of the Living God (Apostolic Church), and 
(3) Church of Christ in God. The statistics for 
the three bodies were : Ministers, loi ; churches, 
68; members, 4,286. 

50 



HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

CHURCH OF THE NEW JERUSALEM 
(SWEDENBORGIAN). 

The doctrines set forth in the writings of Eman- 
uel Swedenborg (born in Stockholm, Sweden, in 
1688; died in London in 1772) form a basis of the 
union of his followers, who are better known as 
Swedenborgians. The first steps toward organiza- 
tion began in London in 1782, when Robert Hind- 
marsh, a printer, gathered a few associates into a 
society for reading and studying the works of 
Swedenborg. This association gradually took on 
the forms of a religious society. The result was the 
Church of the New Jerusalem, named after the New 
Jerusalem of the Apocalypse. A general conference 
was formed, which has met annually since 181 5. 
In 1906 7,256 Swedenborgians were enrolled in 
Great Britain. Many who are enumerated as 
Swedenborg's followers have not severed their 
membership with other Churches, which is also 
true in this country. 

The first Swedenborgian society organized in 
America was in 1792 at Baltimore. The various so- 
cieties and Churches in the United States and Cana- 
da are associated in a general convention, which 
meets annually. There are also State associations. 
In government the New Jerusalem Church is partly 
congregational and partly episcopal, each local so- 
ciety governing its own affairs ; but there are gen- 
eral pastors, corresponding to bishops in episcopal 
Churches. The service is largely liturgical, con- 
forming to the Book of Worship published by the 
general convention. 

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HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

Swedenborg's doctrines grew out of his experience 
in which he professed to have had his spiritual 
senses opened. His experience was unique in that 
he did not claim to have communication with spirits 
nor to have received visions or revelations ; but he 
professed through all the later years of his life that 
he was a dweller within the spiritual world; that, 
being dead on the side of this world, he was in con- 
stant association with spiritual beings as one of 
them. According to Swedenborg, the Church which 
Christ established came to an end in 1757, and he 
testifies that he witnessed the last general judg- 
ment at that time in the spiritual world. A new 
dispensation was introduced, the beginning of the 
Church of the New Jerusalem, prophesied in the 
Revelation ; and of this dispensation and Church the 
writings of Swedenborg contain the doctrines. 

The latest published returns (1912) credit this or- 
ganization with 137 ministers, 157 churches, and 
9,601 members. 



COMMUNISTIC SOCIETIES. 

These embrace all societies or religious bodies 
observing the communal life. Those now in ex- 
istence In the United States and that have, or began 
with, a religious basis are given. They are as fol- 
lows: 

The Amana Society. — There are several organiza- 
tions of this society which call themselves the 
"True Inspiration Congregations." They are located 
at Amana, la. Immigrants from Germany founded 
the society near Buffalo, N. Y., whence they re- 

52 



HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

moved during the next ten years to their present 
location. The community was incorporated in 
1859 with provisions that all property should be 
held in common; that agriculture, manufacturing, 
and trade should furnish the means of sustenance : 
and that the surplus should be applied to com- 
munal improvements and for educational and benev- 
olent purposes. Persons joining the society sur- 
render all property and all claim to wages and are 
promised in return board and dwelling, support in 
old age and sickness, and are given an annual al- 
lowance for clothing and other expenses. It was 
formerly held that the person at the head of the 
society was under the direct inspiration of God. 
The temporal government is vested in thirteen trus- 
tees, who are elected annually by the male members 
of the society. Baptism is not practiced, and the 
Lord's Supper is observed only when inspired direc- 
tion is given. Religious services are held every day 
in the week, in which Bible study and inquisitorial 
examination of the members are prominent. No 
reports of the society later than 1906 are published. 
At that date the community had 1,756 members. 

The Church Triumphant (Koreshanity). — ^This 
society has communities in Chicago and one in Lee 
County, Fla. It owes its origin to Dr. Cyrus Teed, 
who claimed to have received a spiritual illumina- 
tion in 1870 with a revelation of the system which 
he has denominated "Koreshanity," from Koresh, 
the Hebrew form of his own name, Cyrus. The 
Koresh theology is based upon the claim that Teed 
was the reincarnation of the Messiah, and many 
strange and extravagant doctrines, both theological 

53 



HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

and scientific, are taught. The membership of the 
communities is estimated at from 5,000 to 10,000. 
The 1906 census reports credit them with two hun- 
dred and five members. 

The Ephrata Community. — John Conrad Beissel, 
who withdrew from the Dunkards, founded this 
community in 1732 in Lancaster County, Pa. It 
was during Beissel's Hfe a semi-monastic order, with 
many peculiarities of Hfe and dress. Some years 
after Beissel's death the remaining members became 
incorporated as the Seventh-Day Baptists, German. 
They still hold the land and other property of the 
Beissel community, but communistic principles 
have been abandoned. They have about two hun- 
dred and fifty members. 

The Oneida Community. — ^This society was 
founded in 1845 by John Humphrey Noyes at 
Oneida, N. Y. Noyes had been led to believe in the 
possibility of Christians living a sinless life, and he 
advocated other doctrines new in those times. He 
gathered a company of disciples first in Vermont; 
but the company moved to their present location, 
where they were organized on a communal basis. 
Certain teachings and practices on the marriage 
relation, in which temporary marriages were ar- 
ranged, and on the care of children brought about 
strong opposition without, and the pressure of pub- 
lic opinion forced an abandonment of the practices. 
In 1881 the community was dissolved, and the so- 
ciety was converted into a joint stock company for 
manufacturing purposes, although many features of 
a cooperative community still remain. It numbers 

54 



HANDBOOK OF ALL DEiSTOMINATIONS 

about one thousand members, most of whom are 
employees. 

The Shakers, or the Millennial Church.— The 
Shakers were the first to organize communistic so- 
cieties in this country, and for more than a century 
these communistic settlements have been main- 
tained among them. Their first community was 
organized at Mount Lebanon, N. Y., in 1792. This 
is also the largest and is recognized as the "central 
executive" of all the Shaker societies. The Shakers 
:were at first a sect of the English Quakers. They 
appeared about 1747 as a result of a revival in 
which, because of their bodily agitations when 
under religious excitement, they came to be called 
the "Shaking Quakers." Ann Lee became the 
leader of the Shakers. She professed to have re- 
ceived revelations "of the way of redemption," pro- 
claimed herself a reincarnation of the Messiah, and 
came to be accepted as such. She came to America 
in 1774 with a small company of followers and es- 
tablished a Church at Watervliet, N. Y. Ann Lee 
died in 1784, and three years later the society was 
placed on a communal basis. According to the 
Shaker doctrines, the religious history of mankind 
is divided into four cycles. The first included the 
antediluvians ; the second, the Jews up to the com- 
ing of Christ; the third, from the time of Christ to 
the appearing of Ann Lee; the fourth and last is 
the present dispensation, and the Shaker Church 
is the embodiment of Christ's kingdom on earth. 
The Shakers reject the doctrine of the Trinity, hold- 
ing that God is dual, male and female ; that he ap- 
peared in Christ as male and in Ann Lee as female. 

55 



HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

They also deny the resurrection of the body and the 
atonement. SpirituaHsm is a prominent doctrine 
among them, also celibacy. In their religious serv- 
ices exhortations by both men and women march- 
ing and dancing to music are prominent. In the 
ministry and in all the affairs of the Church men 
and women are on an equal footing. The Shakers 
have fifteen societies, found in seven States, and in 
1890 had 1,728 members. The report for 1906 shows 
them to have only 516 members. 



CONGREGATIONALISTS. 

The Congregational body may be justly entitled 
the mother of Churches. From it have proceeded 
the Baptists, Unitarians, Universalists, Adventists, 
Christian Scientists, and other bodies; and the 
parent Church still remains the predominant Prot- 
estant denomination in all the New England States 
except Rhode Island. 

The Mayflower, landing at Plymouth, Mass., in 
1620, brought the first Congregational Church to 
American shores. While all the Pilgrims were not 
members of that Church, the larger part of them 
had been members in Holland ; and upon a division 
of the Church in that country, a part remaining and 
a part emigrating to America, it was agreed that 
each part thereafter should constitute a complete 
Church, so that the Mayflower brought over a com- 
pletely organized Church which transplanted itself 
in America. The Church in Holland had been made 
up of English Congregationalists, who had fled 
thither to escape persecutions. English Congrega- 

56 



HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

tionalism dates from 1580, the first organization 
being formed in that year at Norwich by Robert 
Browne, who had become dissatisfied with the 
AngHcan Church, in which he was a minister. This 
body was scattered by persecutions. Other 
Churches of this system met a similar fate. The 
Church which was afterwards represented in the 
Mayflower colony was organized at Nottingham- 
shire in 1606. Two of the members of this con- 
gregation were John Robinson, who became its 
pastor, and William Bradford, afterwards Governor 
of the Plymouth Colony. The Nottinghamshire 
Church was broken up in 1608, and its members 
fled to Holland and reorganized. This Church 
prospered, remained harmonious, and was distinct- 
ly Congregational, in all essential particulars like 
the Congregational Churches of the present time. 

The history of Congregationalism in America for 
two centuries following the landing of the Pilgrims 
is closely Interwoven with the history of New Eng- 
land, where from the first it was the dominant 
Church. The Puritan colonists of 1628-30, mem- 
bers of the Anglican Church at home, found Con- 
gregationalism so well adapted to their new condi- 
tions in America that they adopted it, and until 
1700 there were hardly any other Churches in Mas- 
sachusetts and Connecticut. Congregationalism be- 
came practically the "State Church" of these colo- 
nies. Political suffrage was for a time limited to 
Church members, and until the early part of the 
nineteenth century the Church was supported by 
taxation. This condition was changed In Connecti- 
cut in 1816 and In Massachusetts In 1833. 

57 



HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

In i8oi a plan of union was entered into with the 
Presbyterians concerning the formation of Churches 
in new settlements in the West. Under it Congre- 
gationalists moving from New England to other 
States usually entered Presbyterian Churches. 
Until the abrogation of this agreement, in 1852, 
Congregationalism was confined almost entirely to 
New England. The antislavery position of the de- 
nomination closed the Southern States to it before 
the war. Since 1852 the Church has grown rapidly 
in many of the Western States. Their numbers in 
the South are still small, and their work in this sec- 
tion is confined largely to the negroes. 

In doctrine the Congregationalists agree substan- 
tially with all evangelical faiths. In their early his- 
tory they held the Calvinistic position, and one of 
their early creedal statements was the Westminster 
Confession. In 1883 a commission appointed by the 
national council formulated a Confession, consist- 
ing of twelve articles. It is more evangelical in its 
statements than the older creed. But no Congre- 
gational Church is obliged to accept any creed or 
declaration of faith. Each Church may adopt its 
own creed, and many Churches do. In polity the 
underlying principles have been stated as being 
(i) the independence of the local Church and (2) 
the fellowship of the Churches. Stated in another 
way by another authority, the characteristic fea- 
tures of Congregational polity are freedom and 
fellowship — a freedom which leaves each Church to 
manage its own afifairs, a fellowship which unites 
all the Churches for mutual care and cooperate 
action. In accordance with the principle of auton- 

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HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

omy, each Church may draw up its own creed and 
covenant, formulate its order of worship, elect and 
install its pastor and other officers. It is common, 
however, in calling or dismissing a pastor, in form- 
ing new Churches, in cases of discipline, and in 
questions arising between Churches, to refer these 
matters to a council composed of pastors and mem- 
bers of neighboring Churches. Churches are asso- 
ciated in local and State associations and in the 
national council. The national council was formed 
in 1871 and meets triennially. It has no legislative 
nor judicial power over the Churches, but adminis- 
ters the general missionary and other interests. At 
its meeting in 1913 a new constitution was adopted, 
under which the general agencies of the denomina- 
tion are correlated and placed under the advisory 
direction of a commission. 

The Congregationalists have always been in the 
forefront in missionary and educational work. A 
missionary society was formed in Connecticut as 
early as 1798 and in Massachusetts a year later. 
The National Congregational Home Mission So- 
ciety was formed in 1826 and has been active in ex- 
tending Churches in new settlements. The Ameri- 
can Missionary Association, organized in 1846, has 
done its work chiefly among the negroes of the 
South. The oldest foreign mission society in this 
country is the American Board of Commissioners 
for Foreign Missions, founded in 1810. It has 
planted Congregational missions in India, Turkey, 
Japan, China, Micronesia, Austria, Africa, Spain, 
and Mexico. 

Congregationalists founded Harvard and Yale 
59 



HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

Universities, and these institutions were long en- 
gaged mainly in equipping men for the ministry. 
The Unitarian controversy early in the nineteenth 
century, resulting in the loss of thirty-nine Churches 
to the Congregationalists and the division of nearly 
one hundred others, wrested Harvard from the con- 
trol of the denomination. Andover Theological 
Seminary was established to fill its place. Other 
seminaries are the Atlanta, Bangor, Chicago, Hart- 
ford, OberHn, Pacific (Berkeley, Cal.), and Yale. 
Including these and three important woman's col- 
leges, the denomination has founded more than 
forty higher institutions of learning. 

The reports for 1914 indicate 6,091 ministers, 
6,129 churches, and 755,088 communicants. The re- 
port ending December 31, 1912, gives the number 
of ministers as 5,944, "1,932 of whom are without 
charges." There are in the world 14,576 Congrega- 
tionaHst churches and 1,402,202 members. 



DISCIPLES OF CHRIST. 

The movement resulting In the organization of 
the Church of the Disciples is often referred to 
among themselves as the restoration movement — 
not a reformation, but a restoration of primitive 
Christianity. Characteristic expressions of their 
early preaching were: "The ancient order of 
things;" "Where the Bible speaks we speak, where 
the Bible is silent we are silent ;" ''A thus salth the 
Lord, either In express terms or by approved prece- 
dent, for every article of faith and Item of religious 

60 



HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

practice;'* and "Nothing ought to be received into 
the faith or worship of the Church nor be made a 
test of communion among Christians that is not as 
old as the New Testament." 

Many of these declarations are attributed to 
Thomas Campbell, an Irish Seceder Presbyterian 
minister, who came to America in 1807. He was 
immediately assigned work by his Church in Wash- 
ington County, Pa. His fraternity with other de- 
nominations and his indifference to the usages of 
his own, as instanced by his inviting members of 
other Presbyterian bodies to the communion, 
brought upon him the censure of his brethren. He 
v/ithdrew from the Seceder Church, but continued 
to preach, mainly in the homes of the people. In 
1809 he formed the "Christian Association of Wash- 
ington," and a meetinghouse was built. Campbell 
issued a "Declaration and Address," in which he 
explained that "this society by no means considers 
itself a Church, nor do the members consider them- 
selves as standing in that relation, but merely as 
voluntary advocates of Church reformation." The 
Declaration protested against the "bitter jarrings 
and janglings of a party spirit," against human 
opinions and creeds in the Church, and announced 
the purpose of returning to the original pattern laid 
down in the New Testament. 

In the same year Thomas Campbell was joined 
by his son, Alexander, from Ireland, who adopted 
his views. The father made some efforts to unite 
the "Association" with the Presbyterians, but his 
overtures were rejected. The son showed himself 
of a different spirit and purpose and henceforth be- 

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HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

came the champion of the cause advocated in the 
Declaration and Address. "A more aggressive 
leader was needed," says M. M. Davis ("History 
of the Restoration Movement"), "and the father 
instinctively stepped to the rear and threw his man- 
tle over the shoulders of his son." The father laid 
the foundation, but the son built thereon. 

In 1811 the first Church of the Christian Asso- 
ciation was organized at Brush Run, Washington 
County, Pa., with twenty-nine members. Alexander 
Campbell was ordained to the ministry in this 
Church in 1812. During the same year the father 
and son, having previously surrendered their belief 
in infant baptism, changed their views on the mode 
of baptism, and they and their families were im- 
mersed by a Baptist minister. This change brought 
the Baptists into sympathy with them, and upon 
invitation of the Redstone Baptist Association, and 
"being still anxious to avoid every appearance of 
forming a new denomination," the Brush Run 
Church entered this association in 1813. Baptist 
churches were thrown open to Alexander Camp- 
bell, and his aggressive presentation of his views 
gained him a wide hearing. He held debates with 
Pedobaptists in which his Baptist brethren were 
his enthusiastic supporters. "But he was candid 
with them and warned them against a possible fu- 
ture." He is reported as having addressed to a 
company of Baptist preachers the statement that 
"I have nearly as much against you Baptists as I 
have against the Presbyterians." 

In 1823 Mr. Campbell began publishing the 
Christian Baptist, in which he set forth views which 



HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

brought upon him widespread opposition among the 
Baptists. He was tried for heresy and acquitted; 
but Baptist Churches began to disfellowship his 
followers. As a result the Brush Run Church with- 
drew from the Redstone Association and joined the 
Mahoning Association, in Eastern Ohio. The Ma- 
honing Association became so leavened with Camp- 
bell's teachings that it disbanded, and the Churches 
joined the new movement almost in a body. The 
rupture with the Baptists was brought about, ac- 
cording to Vedder, a Baptist historian, on account 
of the practice of baptism *'unto the remission of 
sins," which Campbell was advocating. Davis, the 
historian of the Disciples, agrees, but mentions 
other differences, as those involving the subjects of 
conversion, creeds, the administrator in baptism, 
the use of the Lord's Supper, the reception of mem- 
bers, and the call to the ministry. The same au- 
thor says : "No exact day can be named as the time 
of this sad occurrence [the separation] , for it came 
about gradually and consumed several years in its 
consummation ; but we may date it 1830. After this 
the followers of Mr. Campbell were called Chris- 
tians, or Disciples of Christ, or the Christian 
Church, the legal title being the Church of Christ 
at such and such a place." The names commonly 
applied by outsiders and opposers of the movement 
were "Restorationers" and "Campbellites." 

Mr. Campbell was early assisted in spreading his 
views by a great number of preachers, many of 
them recruits from other Churches, mainly from 
the Baptist, and some of them raised up by the 
movement. The most famous of these was Rev. 

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HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

Walter Scott, an Ohio evangelist, through whose 
influence the practice of baptism ''for the remission 
of sins" began about 1827. The new doctrines 
found their readiest acceptance in Ohio, Kentucky, 
Western Virginia (afterwards West Virginia), In- 
diana, Missouri, and Tennessee. And in this terri- 
tory *'not only individuals by the hundreds and 
thousands were saved, but often entire congrega- 
tions swung into line. . . . Baptist congrega- 
tions would vote out the Philadelphia Confession 
and vote in the New Testament in its place. And 
not only Baptists, but Presbyterians, Universalists, 
Lutherans, Methodists, and Episcopalians, in large 
numbers were reached. The Deerfield Methodist 
Church came in as a whole." During this period 
the forces abroad were ably assisted by Mr. Camp- 
bell, not only in preaching and debating tours, but 
by his editorial work on the Christian Baptist. 
"This paper kept up a raking fire all along the line 
of religious discussions, but it was specially severe 
at certain points. One of these was the clergy, and 
he handled them without gloves. He characterized 
them as hireling priests, textuary divines, and scrap 
doctors. . . . He scored them for their clerical 
dress, their sanctimonious speech, their long-faced 
piety, their devotion to party, and their claim to a 
special divine call." 

The largest and most important accession in one 
body to the Campbell movement was the union with 
it of Rev. Barton W. Stone and some fifty Churches 
of his following in Kentucky, Tennessee, and Ohio, 
the union occurring in 1831. The Stone movement 
began in Kentucky in 1804, when, as a result of 

64 



HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

great revivals in that section, Stone, with a few 
other ministers, left the Presbyterian Church and 
formed an organization, taking the name of Chris- 
tian. Mr. Campbell's biographer. Dr. Richardson, 
contrasts the two parties to the union as follows : 
"In one [the Stone party] the protracted meeting 
was prominent, and converts were multiplied; in 
the other the mists and clouds of theological specu- 
lation were dissipated, and the Church of the apos- 
tolic days was being brought back into view." 

For the next thirty-five years, or until his death, 
in 1866, Alexander Campbell was the foremost 
figure in the movement. He traveled thousands of 
miles, preached, lectured, held public discussions, 
and was a voluminous writer, his publications num- 
bering some sixty volumes. He founded Bethany 
College, West Virginia, in 1840, "with the Bible 
as a textbook." In 1847 he traveled and preached 
in Great Britain, where he found Churches called 
Churches of Christ, of independent origin, but hold- 
ing much in common with his views. 

One of Campbell's books, "The Christian Sys- 
tem," is the best-known treatise on the doctrinal 
position of the Disciples ; but a tract entitled "Our 
Position," by Isaac Errett, is held to be the best 
brief statement of their faith. This authority, after 
naming the points of agreement with other evan- 
gelical bodies, sets out the particulars In which the 
Disciples differ. These are: I. On the division of 
the Scriptures. The Disciples hold that, while both 
Testaments are inspired, the Old Testament was 
authority for the Jews ; the New Testament is now 
of authority for Christians. 2. The Disciples re- 
S 65 



HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

pudiate the theological and philosophical specula- 
tions of Trinitarians and Unitarians and reject all 
unauthorized forms of speech on questions which 
transcend human reason, insisting only on the 
words given in the Scriptures concerning the 
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. 3. They repudiate 
all human authoritative creeds. "We do not object 
to publishing what we believe and practice, but we 
refuse to accept any such statement as authoritative 
or as a test of fellowship." 4. "With us the divinity 
and Christhood of Jesus is the creed of Christianity, 
and we demand no other faith in order to baptism 
and Church membership. In matters of opinion, 
touching which the Bible is either silent or obscure, 
we allow the largest liberty." 5. "While recogniz- 
ing the agency of the Holy Spirit in conversion, we 
repudiate all theories of spiritual operations and all 
theories which rule out the Word of God as the in- 
strument of regeneration and conversion or which 
regard regeneration as a miracle, leading men to 
seek for evidence of acceptance with God in super- 
natural tokens rather than in the definite and un- 
changeable testimonies and promises of the gospel." 
6. "We insist on the meaning of baptism, according 
to the divine testimonies, that it is for the remission 
of sins. Concerning the Lord's Supper, we invest 
it not with the awfulness of a sacrament, but regard 
it as a memorial feast and keep it on every Lord's 
day, recognizing neither open nor close com- 
munion." 7. "The Church of Christ — not sects — 
is a divine institution. We do not recognize sects, 
with sectarian names and symbols, as branches of 
the Church of Christ, but as unscriptural and anti- 

66 



HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

scriptural and therefore to be abandoned for the 
one Church of God which the New Testament re- 
veals. That God has a people among these sects 
we believe and call on them to come out from all 
party organizations. We urge the Word of God 
against human creeds, faith in Christ against faith 
in systems of theology, obedience to Christ rather 
than to Church authority, the Church of Christ in 
place of sects, the promises of the gospel instead of 
dreams, visions, and marvelous experiences as evi- 
dences of pardon." On the subject of the design of 
baptism this author explains that "regeneration 
must be so far accomplished before baptism that the 
subject is changed in heart, and in faith and peni- 
tence must have yielded up his heart to Christ, 
otherwise baptism is nothing but an empty form. 
But forgiveness is something distinct from regen- 
eration; forgiveness is an act of the sovereign, not 
a change of the sinner's heart ; it needs to be offered 
in a sensible and tangible form, such that the sin- 
ner can seize it and appropriate it. . . . In bap- 
tism, therefore, the sinner appropriates what the 
mercy of God has provided and offered in the gos- 
pel." 

In point of Church government, the Disciples 
agree with the Congregationallsts and Baptists, 
with the exception that the distinction between 
clergy and laity is not known. They have elders, 
or bishops, deacons, and evangelists; but in the 
absence of a minister the members meet in worship, 
observe the Lord's Supper, and any member may 
administer baptism. No ecclesiastical courts are 
recognized, but It is now becoming somewhat gen- 

67 



HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

eral to refer cases of discipline to a committee for 
final decision. Churches are organized into district, 
State, and national conventions; not for discussion 
or decisions in matters of doctrine or discipline, but 
only for cooperation in the benevolent work of the 
denomination. 

The history of the Disciples has not been without 
controversies within its own ranks. The slavery 
question seriously threatened the integrity of the 
body, but it came through the war without a di- 
vision. The communion question, as to whether 
unimmersed persons should be invited to the Lord's 
table, was long a subject of controversy. The more 
general conclusion reached, though it was not unani- 
mous, was that indicated above, that "we neither 
invite nor exclude." Another subject of contro- 
versy, and which proved more serious than any 
other in its consequences, was the question of in- 
strumental music in the churches. The differences 
on this subject reached an acute stage about 1870. 
Those who opposed the organ in worship generally 
also opposed missionary societies. Feeling ran 
high, and hundreds of congregations became di- 
vided. The division has never been healed, but 
rather have the parties in this controversy grown 
wider apart. "The rupture at this point," says 
Davis, "is the most serious matter yet encountered 
in the plea for Christian union. It shows our in- 
ability to fully illustrate this glorious plea." The 
two parties resulting from this division are now 
generally known by the name of the Church of 
Christ, or the Conservatives, who do not use instru- 
mental music in their worship, and the Disciples of 

6S 



HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

Christ, or the Progressives, who are more in line 
with other evangelical Churches in their worship 
and in their wonderful growth and activities. 

The educational work of the Disciples began with 
the founding of Bethany College, West Virginia, in 
1840. Alexander Campbell was its founder and first 
president. The institution has an endowment of 
$360,000 and two hundred and fifty students. Tran- 
sylvania University, Lexington, Ky., and Drake 
University, Des Moines, la., are two leading insti- 
tutions under the control of the Disciples, with 
property valued at $700,000 each and endowments 
of about $500,000 each. Hiram College, Hiram, 
Ohio, founded in 1849, ^^^ foi" its second president 
James A. Garfield, afterwards President of the 
United States. Texas Christian University, Fort 
Worth, Tex., Phillips University, Enid, Okla., Cot- 
ner University, Lincoln, Nebr., and Virginia Chris- 
tian College, Lynchburg, are other flourishing col- 
leges. The denomination, all told, owns or controls 
about thirty-seven schools and colleges. 

The American Christian Missionary Society, a 
home mission agency, was organized In 1849. It 
has been Instrumental In establishing about four 
thousand Churches. The headquarters are at Cin- 
cinnati. The Christian Women's Board of Mis- 
sions was organized In 1874. Its activities extend 
to both home and foreign fields. The Foreign 
Christian Missionary Society dates from 1875. It 
sustains work In Japan, China, the Philippines, In- 
dia, Africa, Cuba, and In some European countries. 
An undertaking of the greatest significance Is the 
"Men and Millions Movement," launched at a meet- 

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HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 



ing in St. Louis in 1913. It contemplates the rais- 
ing of $6,000,000, $1,000,000 of which was pledged 
by a wealthy layman, for distribution among the 
various benevolent boards of the Church. The 
campaign also looks to the enlistment of one thou- 
sand new recruits for the mission fields at home and 
abroad. 

Statistics: Church of Christ reports for 1906 (no 
later figures published) : Ministers, 2,100; churches, 
2,649; members, 156,658. 

Disciples of Christ, membership by States, from 
the Yearbook, 191 5, issued by the American Chris- 
tian Missionary Society :* 



Alabama 

Arizona 

Arkansas 

California, North... 

California, South 

Colorado 

District of Columbia, 
Maryland, and 
Delaware 

Florida 

Georgia 

Idaho, North 

Idaho, South 

Illinois 

Indiana 

Iowa 

Kansas 

Kentucky 

Louisiana 



6,000 
1,269 
28,000 
14,000 
16,827 
10,508 



7,678 

3,242 

16,500 

1,726 

2,200 

115,000 

140,000 

65,000 

66,939 

168,675 

3,000 



Michigan 12,240 

Minnesota 4,175 

Mississippi 9,200 

Missouri 150,000 

Montana 3,200 

Nebraska 23,042 

New England 3,019 

New Mexico and 

West Texas 2,571 

New York 10,400 

North Carolina 16,277 

North Dakota 1,000 

Ohio 100,000 

Oklahoma 35,ooo 

Oregon 17,000 

Pennsylvania, East.. 9,292 

Pennsylvania, West.. 24,590 

South Carolina 2,096 

South Dakota 2,000 



*The figures from many States are estimates — e. g., Ala- 
bama, 3,925 members reported; 19 Churches out of 55 not re- 
porting; total estimated membership, 6,000. 

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HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

Tennessee 40,000 Wisconsin 2,600 

Texas 164,000 Wyoming 518 

Y'^^. ^°° Total, U. S T;^6I^ 

7^)"Tl""^"V" ^°'^°^ Canada 7,349 

Washington, East... 7,700 foreign fields 45,945 

Washington, West... 11,000 

West Virginia 15,075 Total, world I,4i6,457 

The Disciples report but an insignificant increase 
during the past year, "due to imperfect reports and 
separation from conservative brethren." The num- 
ber of Churches is 8,524, as compared with 9,099 the 
previous year. This decrease is due in part to the 
elimination of Churches v^hich were "mere names" 
in the previous year's reports and in part to the 
fact that many of the more conservative Churches 
in the Southern States insist that their congrega- 
tions shall not be included in these reports. About 
one-third of the Churches, or 2,748, are listed as 
having no regular pastor in charge. Total white 
preachers, 5,634; colored, 525. 

United Christian Conference of the Disciples of 
Christ. — The following is taken from the World 
Almanac for 191 5 : "This is a new department of the 
denomination commonly known as the Christian 
Church, or Disciples of Christ, otherwise called 
*Campbellites.' This *Church of Christ' is in the 
United States divided into about three parties : the 
*Antis,' or Reactionary party, about 150,000 in nu- 
merical strength; the 'Conservatives,* or Conven- 
tional sort, 800,000 strong; and the 'Progressives,' 
or Conference kind, the latter, about 50,000 in num- 
ber, having organized a national office at Portland, 
Oregon, when in 191 1 the American Convention met 

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HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

at that place in national convention and a bishop 
was elected with headquarters in Portland, Oregon. 
Soon after this the new department was incor- 
porated in the name of the 'United Christian Con- 
ference of the Disciples of Christ,' and the Rt. Rev. 
St. D. Martin was elected as their bishop. The 
Christian Century, a weekly organ published at 
Chicago, is recognized as their journalistic leader. 
They also have Eastern headquarters at Newark, 
N. J., and a bishop at that point, the Rt. Rev. J. D. 
Meade, who supervises the affairs of the Eastern 
States." 



EVANGELICAL CHURCHES. 

While not usually classified among Methodist 
bodies, the Evangelical Association is Methodistic 
in doctrine, polity, and in spirit, and it is repre- 
sented in the Methodist Ecumenical Conferences. 
Its founder, Jacob Albright, was at one time a min- 
ister in the Methodist Episcopal Church. 

Albright was a German, born in Pennsylvania in 
1759. The low religious condition of his own peo- 
ple around him led him to undertake a religious 
revival among them about 1790. His eflforts met 
with success, and, like the founder of Methodism, 
he was soon confronted with the problem of taking 
care of his converts. The leaders of his own de- 
nomination "did not wish to do work at that time 
among the Germans of this country," and Albright 
organized his converts Into separate societies, the 
first organization being formed about 1800. The 
first conference was held in 1807, at which Albright 

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HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

was elected bishop. Two years later a discipline, 
similar to that used in the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, was published. Albright's followers were 
at first called the "Albright people," or the "Al- 
brights," but later the name Evangelical Associa- 
tion of North America was taken. While this 
movement was begun among the German people, 
it has now its largest membership among English- 
speaking people. 

Differences of long standing culminated in 1890 
and 1891 in the trial and suspension of the three 
bishops of the Association. In October, 1891, two 
bodies, each claiming to be the legal general con- 
ference, met, the one in Philadelphia, the other in 
Indianapolis. The courts were resorted to, and 
their decisions were generally in favor of the In- 
dianapolis conference. The opposite wing organ- 
ized the United Evangelical Church at Napierville, 
III, in 1894. 

Both branches have extensive publishing, educa- 
tional, and missionary interests, and the two bodies 
report an increase of more than 50,000 members 
since 1906. Statistics for 1914: Evangelical Asso- 
ciation — ministers, 1,031; churches, 1,663; mem- 
bers, 115,243. United Evangelical Church — min- 
isters, 538; churches, 935; members, 75,050. The 
denomination is strongest in the States of Pennsyl- 
vania, Ohio, and Illinois. 



FRIENDS. 

The founder of the Society of Friends, or Quak- 
ers, was George Fox, who, becoming dissatisfied 

73 



HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

with the rehgious conditions in England, began 
preaching about 1647. He traveled through Eng- 
land on foot and soon drew around him a considera- 
ble following. One of Fox's early converts was 
Margaret Fell, a woman of prominence, who be- 
came one of his strongest supporters. From her 
house a band of sixty Quaker missionaries went 
forth to preach the doctrines of the new faith. The 
labors of Fox and this band of preachers were at- 
tended by great spiritual power, and thousands of 
adherents were gathered. On account of some doc- 
trines preached, as advising against oaths, the pay- 
ment of taxes for the support of the State Church, 
and against obedience to all laws deemed by them 
iniquitous, the Friends came into conflict with the 
government, and thousands of them were impris- 
oned and subjected to persecution. 

After many rebuffs the movement took hold in 
the American colonies in New England as early as 
1660. George Fox himself made a preaching tour 
of the colonies in 1673-81. But the most important 
enterprise in the history of the Society in this coun- 
try was the settlement of Pennsylvania by William 
Penn and a company of his brethren, beginning in 
1682. This colony was controlled by the Friends 
for more than seventy years. 

Soon after the cessation of persecution (about 
1680) the Friends lost much of their aggressiveness 
and began to turn their attention to internal or- 
ganization and discipline. Much attention was also 
given to works of philanthropy and against slavery. 
From this time there was a steady decline in mem- 
bership. In 1827 a schism occurred in the societies 

74 



HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

in Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio, and Indiana, due 
to the preaching of Elias Hicks, a prominent Friend, 
who taught doctrines closely resembling Unitarian 
views. The followers of Hicks came to be known 
as the Hicksite branch. In 1840 another separation 
from the main body occurred, although not so 
serious nor distinct as before, the point of contro- 
versy being as to the relative authority of the 
Scriptures and the Spirit. Those who separated 
are known as the Wilburites, from John Wilbur. 
Since 1871 the Friends have been active supporters 
of foreign mission work. 

The doctrine emphasized in the preaching of 
George Fox and the distinctive doctrine held by the 
Friends from that day Is that relating to the "inner 
illumination and guidance of the Holy Spirit" In 
the individual believer. This doctrine lies at the 
root of all their special doctrines and explains the 
peculiar nature of their meetings. The Friends 
meet and usually remain In silence. In meditation, 
worship, or self-examination, until some one is 
moved by the Spirit to speak. In their view all be- 
lievers are ''priests unto God," and any person, old 
or young, male or female, who feels so called has 
the authority to teach or to preach. The ordinances 
of baptism and the Lord's Supper are not observed, 
their belief being that the baptism of the Spirit and 
communion with the Father and the Son meet all 
Scriptural necessities. 

The societies are associated In monthly, quarter- 
ly, and annual meetings. These meetings appoint 
overseers for the membership and elders for over- 
sight of the ministry. It has become noticeable of 

75 



HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

late that the distinctive Quaker garb is being laid 
aside and that the characteristic "thee" and **thou" 
of their speech is falling into disuse. The Society 
maintains several educational institutions, among 
them being the William Penn Charter School, 
Philadelphia, founded by William Penn, and Bryn 
Mawr Woman's College, at Byrn Mawr, Pa. 

There are four divisions of the Friends in this 
country, as follows : The Orthodox, the most numer- 
ous branch, strongest in Ohio and Indiana; the 
Hicksite, strongest in Pennsylvania; the Wilburite, 
found mainly in Indiana and Iowa; and the Primi- 
tive, with an insignificant scattered membership. 
The total figures for all bodies are : Ministers, 
1,476; churches, 1,167; members, 124,216. 



FAITH ASSOCIATIONS. 

In the United States census reports of religious 
bodies for 1906 there are fourteen sects or associa- 
tions classified as Evangelistic Associations. In 
the Bulletin of the Federal Council of Churches 
(1914) these are reduced to nine, some of the earlier 
ones having become disorganized or united with 
others and are classified under the head of Faith 
Associations. In origin many of them are Meth- 
odistic, and nearly all emphasize the doctrine of 
holiness or sanctification as a second work of grace. 
They are as follows : 

I. Apostolic Faith Movement. Originated in a 
revival at Topeka, Kans., 1900. Headquarters at 
Los Angeles, Cal., with centers also at Houston, 

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HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 
Tex., and Spokane, Wash. Membership in 1906, 

538. 

2. Penial Missions. Membership, 703. 

3. Metropolitan Church Associations. Developed 
from the Metropolitan Methodist Church, Chicago, 
1894. Headquarters are at Waukesha, Wis. This 
branch is known as the "Burning Bush.'* Member- 
ship, 466. 

4. Hepzibah Faith Association. Formed in 1892 
at Glenwood, la. Membership, 293. 

5. Missionary Church Association. Organized in 
Indiana in 1898. Membership, 1,256. 

6. Heavenly Recruit Church. Organized in In- 
diana in 1885. Membership, 938. 

7. Apostolic Christian Church. An organization 
formed about 1850 among the German Swiss immi- 
grants, emphasizing the doctrine of entire sanctifica- 
tion. Membership, 4,558. 

8. Christian Congregation. Formed in 1899 at 
Kokomo, Ind. Membership, 395. 

9. Voluntary Missionary Society (colored). Or- 
ganized in Alabama in 1900 in protest against the 
Methodist system of financial assessments. Mem- 
bership, 425. 

In addition to those Hsted above, there are other 
similar organizations. 

The Free Christian Zion Church of Christ (Col- 
ored) was organized in Arkansas in 1905 by colored 
Methodist ministers on account of dissatisfaction 
with financial assessments. Membership, 1,835. 

The Lumber River Mission, an organization com- 
posed of Holiness Methodist Churches in North 
Carolina. Membership, 265. 

17 



HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

The International Apostolic Holiness Union, 
founded at Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1897 by Martin W. 
Knapp. Reported in 1906, 2,774 members. 

There are a large number of local organizations, 
known by a great variety of names, which are active 
in evangelistic and charitable work and which are 
popularly known as Holiness bodies, but there are 
no published estimates of their membership. 



FRIENDS OF THE TEMPLE. 

A SMALL body, originating in Germany, which has 
for its purpose the setting up of the kingdom of 
Christ on earth, with Jerusalem for its capital. It 
is expected to restore the temple and the ancient 
theocracy of Israel. A colony has been planted in 
Palestine, but the adherents of the movement, never 
very numerous, are diminishing. In 1906 there 
were three hundred and seventy-six members in the 
United States. 



GERMAN EVANGELICAL PROTESTANTS. 

This is the name given collectively to a number 
of independent German Churches, found chiefly in 
Ohio and Pennsylvania. They have ministerial as- 
sociations, in which matters of mutual interest are 
discussed, but otherwise there are no interchurch 
organizations. Their theology is very liberal, the 
individual believer being left to his own interpre- 
tation of Scripture. In 1906 these Churches re- 
ported 59 ministers, 66 churches, and 34,704 mem- 
bers, 

78 



HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

GERMAN EVANGELICAL SYNOD. 

This represents In the United States the State 
Church of Prussia, which is composed of a union 
of Lutheran and Reformed elements. According to 
an official statement, "the object and purpose of the 
German Evangelical Synod in general is the ad- 
vancement and extension of the kingdom of God, 
but especially the establishment and expansion of 
the Evangelical Church among the German popula- 
tion of the United States." 

The Synod was organized near St. Louis, Mo., in 
1840. Other German synods have since united with 
it. The Synod is divided into eighteen districts, 
which hold district annual conferences. There is 
a general conference, which convenes every four 
years. The body carries on through various boards 
extensive educational, missionary, and benevolent 
work. Both parochial and Sunday schools are 
maintained. The work of the denomination is done 
almost exclusively among the German population, 
but in recent years a few English-speaking 
Churches have been organized. This body is most 
numerous in the States of Missouri, Illinois, and 
Ohio. Statistics for 1914: Ministers, 1,058; 
churches, 1,365 ; members, 290,803. 



GREEK CATHOLIC, OR EASTERN ORTHO- 
DOX, CHURCH. 

This is the general name for one of the three 
grand divisions of Christianity — Greek, Roman 
Catholic, and Protestant — and refers to all those 

79 



HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

Churches which adhere to the Greek rite in distinc- 
tion from the Latin, or Roman. The full official 
title is the ''Holy Orthodox Catholic Apostolic 
Eastern (or Oriental) Church." The title desig- 
nates its origin and geographical territory and its 
''orthodoxy" or adherence to the system of doctrine 
and discipline formulated by the seven early ecu- 
menical councils. 

The division of the ancient Church into the East- 
ern, or Greek, wing and Western, or Roman, oc- 
curred in the ninth century. They were never or- 
ganically united, but grew up together and co- 
operated in the early extension of Christianity and 
in the early ecumenical councils. But from the be- 
ginning they differed in tradition, nationality, and 
language. The growth of the papacy in the West 
laid the foundation for the final rupture, the conflict 
between the pope of Rome and the patriarch of 
Constantinople finally resulting in each excom- 
municating the other. The chief doctrinal differ- 
ence between the Eastern and Western Churches 
is the "Filioque" addition to the Nicene Creed made 
by the Roman Church, making that creed declare 
that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father "and 
the Son," the Greeks holding that the procession 
is from the Father only, as originally stated. The 
Greek Church differs from the Roman in other im- 
portant particulars, as follows : Rejection of the 
papacy; celibacy is not practiced, priests being al- 
lowed to marry once; baptism among the Easterns 
is by trine immersion, sprinkling, as practiced by 
the Romans, being held to be "an unchristian in- 
novation"; the attitude in prayer is standing, ex- 

80 



HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

cept at Pentecost, when the worshipers kneel; in- 
fants are confirmed and admitted to the communion 
at baptism. The Greeks have an elaborate ritual, 
like the Romans. They accept the first seven ecu- 
menical councils, but reject all the Western coun- 
cils. They are not strongly committed against 
Protestantism, as the reform movement never came 
into active conflict with the Eastern Church. The 
effort made by a patriarch of Constantinople to en- 
graft Calvinism upon the Greek theology failed 
completely, and the innovator was strangled to 
death and his body thrown into the Bosporus 
(1638). Secession from the Orthodox Church is 
rigidly prohibited. "No one can be converted in 
Russia from one religion or sect to another except 
to the national Orthodox Church, and all the chil- 
dren of mixed marriages where one parent belongs 
to it must be baptized and educated in it.'* 

The Eastern Church is divided into fifteen 
branches, each independent of the other. The com- 
munion embraces the Greek, Russian, and Slavonic 
nationalities and is found chiefly in Turkey, Greece, 
Servia, Roumania, Russia, some parts of Austria, in 
Western Asia, and, chiefly by immigration, in the 
United States. The largest branch is the Church 
in Russia, ruled by the Russian Holy Synod, al- 
though the Czar is the recognized head of the 
Church. The estimated membership of all the 
various branches throughout the world is 150,000,- 
000. 

In the United States there are seven branches of 
the Eastern Orthodox Church; but, as in the Old 
World, all are one in doctrine, discipline, and wor- 
6 81 



HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

ship, and all are subject to ancient canon law as to 
government. The Russian Church has precedence 
over other branches, for the reason that she was 
first to be planted in this country. All Slavonic 
branches, excepting the Bulgarian and the Syrian 
Church, are under her rule. The Greek branch is 
under the Synod of Athens. The following are the 
latest obtainable figures for the various branches in 
the United States : 

Armenian Apostolic 55,000 

Russian Orthodox 65,000 

Greek Orthodox 175,000 

Syrian Orthodox 43,000 

Servian Orthodox 60,000 

Roumanian Orthodox 20,000 

Bulgarian Orthodox 20,000 

Total .438,500 



JEWISH CONGREGATIONS. 

The Jewish population of the world is given in 
round numbers at 11,300,000. Of this number, 
nearly one-half, or 5,400,000, are in Russia and 
2,100,000 in Austria-Hungary. There are 2,150,000 
Jews in the United States and 100,000 in Canada. 

Jews at an early date, as exiles from Spain and 
Portugal, settled in the American colonies. They 
are found in New Amsterdam as early as 1652. 
They were joined by others from Brazil; but the 
Jewish settlers were not welcomed, and they moved 
to Rhode Island, where the first synagogue was or- 
ganized about 1655. The old synagogue is still 

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standing at Newport. Pennsylvania, Georgia, and 
the Carolinas were the next places of settlement. 
The Jews readily attached themselves to their new 
asylum and showed themselves patriots when the 
break came with England. A member of the New- 
port synagogue gave $10,000 to finish the Bunker 
Hill monument. 

Religiously, the Jews may be said, in a general 
way, to hold the ancient faith of their fathers, but 
they are not united in their views and customs. 
Modern Judaism has three divisions, not strictly 
applied nor everywhere applied alike. The Ortho- 
dox Jews hold strictly to the Old Testament as the 
Word of God, and with equal veneration and strict- 
ness they observe the traditional body of laws, 
statutes, and customs expounded by the rabbis of 
the Talmuds and handed down through the genera- 
tions by tradition. The codification of these laws 
and customs, made by Rabbi Joseph Caro in the 
middle of the sixteenth century, is authoritative in 
all the minutest details of Jewish life. 

The Conservative congregations, in common with 
the Orthodox, accept both the written and the oral 
law, but are less strict in their observance. 

The Reformed Jews hold a different attituae to- 
ward both the acceptance and the observance of the 
written and oral law. Liberal ideas as to the in- 
spiration of the Bible and the development of reve- 
lation and tradition are the rule among them, and 
great concessions are made to the spirit of the times 
and the conditions of modern life. In Germany and 
the United States Sunday services are being Intro- 

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HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

duced in addition to the regular Sabbath observ- 
ances, and in a few places, notably Chicago, the 
Sabbath service has been entirely discarded. 

The rites and ceremonies which are generally 
observed vary. The Sabbath is still strictly ob- 
served by the Orthodox. They also rigidly observe 
the two festivals of New Year and the Day of 
Atonement in September and October and the Pass- 
over festival in March or April. The Pentecost 
festival, at the end of May or the beginning of June, 
is observed by the Reformed Jews, among whom it 
is a day of confirmation. The Feast of Tabernacles 
is still generally observed. The dietary laws of 
Moses are universally observed by the Orthodox 
Jews. 

The Jews have no religious head. Each congre- 
gation is autonomous and a law unto itself. But 
congregations cooperate in many ways. There is a 
Union of American Hebrew Congregations, the 
Young Men's Hebrew Association, the National 
Council of Jewish Women, and other general socie- 
ties. According to the latest official reports, there 
are 1,769 Jewish congregations in the United States 
and 1,084 rabbis. Only the heads of Jewish fam- 
ilies are usually members of synagogues. The num- 
ber of heads of families reported is 143,000. 
Counting on the same basis as other Churches, it is 
estimated that there are from 1,750,000 to 2,000,000 
members of the faith in this country. In Jewish 
population the State of New York contains upward 
of 1,000,000; Pennsylvania has 150,000 and Illinois 
1 10,000, Massachusetts 90,000 and Ohio 85,000. 

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LATTER-DAY SAINTS, OR MORMONS. 

The Church of Jesus Christ o£ Latter-Day Saints, 
better known as the Mormon Church, was organized 
April 6, 1830, at Fayette, Seneca County, N. Y., with 
six members. Joseph Smith, its founder, was a 
native of Vermont, whence he moved in boyhood 
with his parents to Western New York. The elder 
Smith was known as a roving money digger and 
water witch, and the family is said to have lived a 
hand-to-mouth existence. Joseph while a boy took 
up his father's calling and is reported by his neigh- 
bors to have miraculously discovered a "peep stone,'* 
by which he claimed to be able to find hidden treas- 
ure. This earned him the nickname of "Peep-Stone 
Joe." His operations carried him frequently into 
Pennsylvania, where in 1827, at the age of twenty- 
two, he eloped with and married the daughter of a 
respectable farmer. 

Smith's visions and revelations began when he 
was only fourteen years of age. Revival meetings 
had turned his attention to religion, but denomina- 
tional disputes left him greatly unsettled as to which 
one of the many Churches he should join. Accord- 
ing to his own account, he determined to commit 
the matter to the Lord in prayer in response to the 
Scriptural invitation of James i. 5. While thus en- 
gaged in the woods near his father's house "he be- 
held two glorious personages, wrapped in a brilliant 
light, standing above him in the air." He was told 
in response to his Inquiries that he should join none 
of the Churches, that all were wrong, and that the 
true gospel would soon be restored to men. Three 

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HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

years later, "after Joseph had retired for the night 
and was engaged in prayer, the room was filled with 
light, and the angel Moroni appeared, who, among 
other disclosures, revealed the hiding place of cer- 
tain golden plates, upon which was recorded the 
fullness of the everlasting gospel." The prophet 
received these plates from the angel, the date being 
set down as September 22, 1827, and with the plates 
"two stones in silver bowls, deposited with the rec- 
ord, constituting what is called the Urim and 
Thummin, which God had prepared for the purpose 
of translating the characters of the record." With 
the aid of these supernatural spectacles Smith trans- 
lated the record, which was published in 1830 as 
the Book of Mormon. The plates were returned 
into the keeping of the angel. 

In close association with Smith in the publication 
of the Book of Mormon and in the organization of 
the Mormon Church were Sidney Rigdon, Martin 
Harris, and Oliver Cowdery. Prefixed to the pub- 
lication is the sworn statement of Harris, Cowdery, 
and Peter Whitmer that they had seen the plates 
from which the book had been transcribed. Harris 
had been in turn a Quaker, Universalist, Baptist, 
and Presbyterian, but "always a dreamer and 
fanatic," affirming that he had visited the moon. 
Harris mortgaged his farm in order to provide for 
the publication of Smith's book ; and as the sale was 
slow, he forfeited his property. Cowdery was a 
schoolmaster who served as Smith's amanuensis. 
All three witnesses who certified to the authenticity 
of Smith's manuscript later fell away from Mor- 

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HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

monism and declared their previous testimony to 
be false. 

The Book of Mormon has fifteen divisions, or 
books, which purport to have been written by as 
many different hands. It sets forth the history of 
certain imaginary races of people who anciently in- 
habited America. One tribe, called the "J^^^^^^^s," 
came directly from the Tower of Babel. The sec- 
ond race came directly from the city of Jerusalem. 
The Jaredites were destroyed. The remnant of the 
Israelitish settlers are the American Indians. The 
book teaches that Jesus Christ made his appear- 
ance on this continent after his resurrection and 
planted the true gospel and instituted the sacra- 
ments and the order of priesthood and Church 
powers. But the American people were cut off in 
consequence of their transgressions, and the last of 
their prophets. Mormon, was charged to write the 
gospel and hide it in the earth. The golden plates 
dug up by Joseph Smith, therefore, bring to light in 
these latter days the book of the prophet Mormon. 

Non-Mormon theories as to the origin of the 
Book of Mormon usually agree in connecting it with 
a certain manuscript entitled "Manuscript Found," 
by Solomon Spaulding, containing an imaginary ac- 
count of the origin of the American Indians. Cred- 
ible evidence goes to show that this manuscript was 
accessible to Rev. Sidney Rigdon for more than two 
years before the publication of the Book of Mor- 
mon and that Rigdon and Smith were associated 
during this time. Rigdon had been a printer in 
Pittsburg, where the manuscript had been sent for 
publication and later became in turn a Baptist and 

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a "Campbellite" preacher. Internal evidence of the 
book strongly reflects the preaching of Rigdon and 
the religious disputes of the times. In the language 
of one investigator, 'It is not specially important 
to know who edited the Spaulding story and de- 
veloped it into the present Book of Mormon. But 
all the evidence points to Sidney Rigdon, and it 
points to no one else. His 'speech bewrayeth' him 
in the employment of phraseology to which he had 
become accustomed while associated with the breth- 
ren of that denomination," referring to his affiliation 
with the movement just beginning under Campbell. 
(R. G. McNiece, D.D., ''Mormonism: Its Origin, 
Characteristics, and Doctrines," article in the 
Fundamentals.) 

In 183 1 Joseph Smith and a small company of 
"converts" moved to Kirtland, Ohio, where they 
found a more inviting field for their doctrines. 
Missionaries were sent out, and as a result of their 
labors the new Church numbered within a few 
months more than twelve hundred members. Com- 
munal business enterprises were established, among 
them a bank, with Smith at its head. The bank 
failed. Judicial proceedings were begun against 
the prophet, but in obedience to a revelation he fled 
to Missouri, whither many of the saints had pre- 
ceded him. 

Smith found his people in sore straits In Mis- 
souri, due to the hostility among the "Gentiles," or 
non-Mormons. The State government assigned the 
Mormons a place of residence in the thinly settled 
western portion of the State, and here the town of 
Far West was founded. The enmity of the Gen- 

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HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

tiles led to the formation among the Mormons of 
the "Danite Band," a secret order sworn to obey 
any behest of the Church against property or life. 
It was here also that the tithing system was intro- 
duced. But peace for the saints was short-lived 
in the new Zion. The Church leaders came under 
suspicion of misappropriation of trust funds, and 
many prominent members forsook the organization. 
Conflicts again broke out between Mormons and 
Gentiles and between the Mormons and the State 
authorities. A general exodus of the saints fol- 
lowed, about fifteen thousand crossing into Illinois. 
The troubles of the new sect had attracted wide at- 
tention ; and as missionaries continued to go far and 
wide, even to England, bringing in hundreds of re- 
cruits and sympathizers. Smith immediately begaa 
to plan a new Zion on a larger scale. The tithing 
system kept the coffers of the Church full. In 
obedience to a "revelation,'* he laid out the city of 
Nauvoo, on the banks of the Mississippi, in Han- 
cock County, 111. It was the prophet's purpose to 
found a theocracy, with himself at its head as God's 
vicegerent. At Nauvoo Smith attained his greatest 
eminence and power in the Church. His headship 
was undisputed in both temporal and spiritual af- 
fairs of the community. He took the title of 
"Prophet, Seer, and Revelator, Apostle of Jesus 
Christ and Elder of the Church." It is recorded 
that in 1842 eight ships were chartered to transport 
the converts from England to America. The ambi- 
tions of the prophet knew no bounds, and in 1844 he 
announced for the Presidency of the United States. 
It was at Nauvoo that the doctrine of polygamy 

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HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

was first announced. There are evidences that it 
had been practiced long before in Ohio and Mis- 
souri; but owing to the antagonism which it was 
feared the practice would arouse, it was kept within 
close bounds until the saints should grow stronger 
in numbers. At Nauvoo the doctrine seems to have 
been announced in obedience to a convenient reve- 
lation to quiet the indignation of Smith's wife at 
his profligacy. 

But the prophet's career was nearing its close. 
Internal dissensions arose over the plural wife doc- 
trine and on account of Smith's autocratic govern- 
ment. Riots broke out, and many of the citizens 
fled. Public indignation ran high among the Gen- 
tiles, and a movement was set on foot to drive the 
Mormons out of the State. Both sides took up 
arms. Smith and his brother Hyrum were arrested 
on a charge of treason and lodged in the jail at 
Carthage. Here, notwithstanding the presence of 
twelve hundred State militia, on the night of June 
27, 1844, a mob assaulted the jail and shot to death 
Joseph and Hyrum Smith. 

After the death of their leader the Mormons split 
up into different followings, according as rival 
claimants for the prophetic office were acknowl- 
edged. One J. J. Strang loudly proclaimed his right 
to succeed the prophet and led off a company to 
Wisconsin, where he established a "kingdom" on an 
island in Lake Michigan. In 1856 he was shot and 
killed in a row, and his followers dispersed. The 
ever-prominent Sidney Rigdon secured a following, 
but his movement soon came to naught. A still 
larger company took the name of "Young Joseph- 

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HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

ites/' after Joseph Smith, Jr., and formed the Reor- 
ganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day 
Saints. (See below.) But the main body of the 
Mormons acknowledged the claims of Brigham 
Young, "the lion of the Lord." 

Young was a man of great native force and 
ability, but with limited education and wholly with- 
out culture. He had embraced Mormonism in New 
York in 1832 and soon joined the prophet at Kirt- 
land. He had rendered notable service to the 
Church as missionary, as one of the Quorum of 
Twelve Apostles (instituted in 1835), and it was 
he who had directed the movement from Missouri 
into Illinois during the troublous times of 1838. 
The crisis in Mormon affairs following Smith's 
death led to tlie plan of a migration to a locality 
beyond the borders of civilization where the saints 
might be free from molestation. Young organized 
and conducted the expedition which, beginning in 
1846, succeeded by the close of 1848 in transferring 
the larger body of Mormons to the valley of Great 
Salt Lake, in Utah. 

Brigham Young's administration of the affairs of 
the Church, beginning in 1844, continued until his 
death, in 1871, during which time he exercised abso- 
lute sway. He not only completed and perfected 
the Mormon hierarchy and largely refashioned and 
gave effect to the body of Mormon doctrines, but 
founded an important State. He extended the mis- 
sionary forces of the Church and brought into the 
valley a constant stream of new adherents to the 
faith. Under the presidency of Brigham Young 
polygamy became the rule among the Mormons. 

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Young himself was, first and last, the husband of 
twenty-five wives and the father of fifty-six chil- 
dren. 

Since the death of Young the Mormon hierarchy 
has had at its head successively John Taylor, Wil- 
ford Woodruff, Lorenzo Snow, and the present in- 
cumbent, Joseph F. Smith, a son of Hyrum Smith. 
The system of government in the Church has at its 
head the President, who succeeds also to the office 
of "prophet, seer, and revelator" instituted by 
Joseph Smith. The President, with his two coun- 
selors, is called the First Presidency. The Quorum 
of Twelve Apostles constitutes a sort of traveling 
episcopacy, or overseers, under the direction of the 
First Presidency. Next in order are the Seventies, 
or seventy elders, who are under seven presidents. 
The seventy elders, with their presidents, constitute 
the Melchizedek, or Higher Priesthood. The 
Aaronic, or Lower Priesthood, consists of priests, 
teachers, and deacons. The territory of the Church 
is divided into "Stakes of Zion," in distinction from 
Zion proper, which is in Jackson County, Mo., 
where the saints expect to gather at last to receive 
the returning Christ. The stakes are divided into 
wards. Each stake has a complete hierarchy, a 
miniature copy of that over the entire Church, and 
each ward has a bishop, who is assisted by under 
officers. 

Aj:cording to a Mormon statement, their system 
"consists of doctrines, commandments, ordinances, 
and rites revealed from God to the present age." 
The Bible is accepted "in so far as it is correctly 
translated. We also accept the Book of Mormon 

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HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

as the Word of God." But such liberties have been 
taken with the Bible as to leave it without any 
meaning to a Mormon, and the Book of Mormon is 
but a historical relic as an authority in comparison 
^vith the body of divinity which has grown up 
through the revelations of the prophets of Mormon- 
ism. "The first principle of Mormonism is belief in 
a present and progressive revelation." The outline 
of Mormon beliefs, so called, which is handed out 
to non-Mormons by the Mormon missionaries, does 
not contain the peculiar doctrines of this sect. The 
doctrines which the Mormons emphasize among 
themselves in these modern times are startling to 
an evangelical Christian mind. For example, the 
Mormon theory of God is that he is Adam exalted. 
Adam "is our father and our God, and the only God 
with whom we have to do," according to Brigham 
Young. Mormonism teaches that those who build 
up large polygamous establishments on earth will 
be advanced to the dignity of gods in the after life 
and will rule over kingdoms. "God himself was 
once as we are now," says Joseph Smith, "and is 
an exalted man. . . . And you have got to learn 
how to be gods yourselves, the same as other gods 
have done before you." The Mormon Catechism 
scouts the idea of one God. "Are there more gods 
than one? Yes, many." These gods continue to 
multiply their progeny in the heavenly world by 
their "celestial wives," the women who were 
"sealed" to them in this world. The "sealing," or 
"celestial marriage," ceremony Is performed only In 
the temple at Salt Lake City and Is attended by 
secret rites to which only the faithful are admitted. 

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HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

Obedience to the priesthood is a cardinal law of 
the Mormon. Baptism is by immersion and *'is un- 
conditionally necessary to salvation." Infant bap- 
tism is rejected. The Lord's Supper is observed 
every Sunday, in which water in later times has dis- 
placed the wine. Public worship consists of sing- 
ing, prayers, and a sermon, which may be on a re- 
ligious subject or may be a political harangue. 

Statistics : The Bulletin of the Federal Council of 
Churches, giving statistics gathered by Dr. H. K. 
Carroll, reports for the Utah branch of Latter-Day 
Saints for 1914 2,150 ministers, 875 churches, and 
310,000 communicants. The Christian Herald 
Almanac for 1914 credits the Utah branch, "ac- 
cording to the last authoritative figures," with 
3,360 preachers, 1,420 churches, and 352,500 mem- 
bers. The United States census of 1906 reported 
215,796 members of the Utah branch. The largest 
number of members is in Utah ; but they are numer- 
ous in the States of Idaho, Arizona, and Wyoming, 
in the order named. There are about fifteen thou- 
sand Mormons in Europe (mostly in Great Britain 
and the countries of Northern Europe), a consid- 
erable number in Canada, and several colonies In 
Mexico. The Church keeps about two thousand 
missionaries in the field — in the United States and 
abroad. This branch reports a gain in member- 
ship of 14,000 for the past year. 

Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter- 
Day Saints. — ^The Reorganized Church was formed 
by a small body of Mormons who disowned the 
leadership of Brigham Young and separated from 

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HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

the main body in 1844. The doctrine of polygamy- 
was repudiated and has never been practiced among 
them. The Book of Mormon is accepted as of di- 
vine origin, and Joseph Smith is held as the prophet 
of the faith. The system of polity is similar to that 
of the Utah Mormons. The headquarters of the 
Church are at Lamoni, la., where a publishing 
house, a college, and homes for the aged are main- 
tained. The Church was presided over by Joseph 
Smith, a son of the first President, until his death at 
Independence, Mo., in 1914. 

Missionary work is carried on in nearly all the 
States and in many foreign countries. In 1914 the 
Church had 65,000 members, reporting a gain for 
the previous year of 5,000. 



LUTHERANS. 

The Lutheran communion dates from the time of 
the Reformation and owes its origin and name to 
the great reformer, Martin Luther. The name was 
first applied by Rome to all Protestants in derision ; 
but it was not accepted without protest from 
Luther, whose aim was not to originate a sect or a 
Church, but to bring about a reform of the entire 
Roman communion. The work and doctrines of 
Luther are in a large measure the common in- 
heritance of Protestantism; but the movement be- 
gun by him early divided into two branches, the 
Lutheran and the Reformed, or the conservative 
and the more radical wing. The more advanced 

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HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

reformers, Zwingli, Calvin, Knox, and others, held 
that the Lutheran reforms did not go far enough; 
that they stopped short of a complete break with 
the corrupt usages and ceremonies of Rome. Doc- 
trinally, the point of greatest divergence between 
Lutheranism and the Reformed creed is on the 
sacraments. The Lutherans held to the necessity 
of baptism to salvation. "Baptism is not simply 
water," according to a Lutheran authority, "but 
water comprehended in God's command and con- 
nected with God's Word" ; and it has a saving ef- 
fect "produced by the Word of God, which accom- 
panies and is connected with the water, and by our 
faith, which relies on the Word of God connected 
with the water." The Lutheran doctrine of the 
Lord's Supper is thus expressed: They believe "in 
the real presence of Christ's body and blood in, 
with, and under the bread and wine during the 
sacramental fruition," a doctrine usually called by 
English writers consubstantiation, in distinction 
from the Roman Catholic doctrine of transubstan- 
tiation; but the term is rejected by the Lutherans. 
"Body and blood are not mixed with nor locally in- 
cluded in, but sacramentally and mysteriously 
united with, the elements." The Lutheran view of 
the Scriptures is that they are not only inspired, 
"but inspiring, possessing not only a normative, but 
a dynamic character. In other Protestant systems 
the sole office of the Word is to point the way of 
life. In Lutheranism it communicates that whereof 
it treats." In Lutheran churches "art in the sanc- 
tuary is not discarded. The symbolic arrangement 
and decoration of God's house is encouraged so far 

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HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

as art is expressive of the gospel and impressive as 
an aid in exciting and deepening faith in it." 
(Quotations from article "Lutherans," in New 
Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia.) 

Lutheranism is the established Church in Den- 
mark, Norway, and Sweden. Lutherans constitute 
nearly the whole of the Protestant population of 
the German States, where its government is in the 
hands of an ecclesiastical cabinet appointed by the 
State. The people of Finland and about one-fourth 
of the population of Switzerland are Lutherans, and 
this Church is represented in practically every coun- 
try of Europe, the total number of Lutheran com- 
municants in Europe being about 60,000,000. 

Dutch J *«4!hgi ' a'iis ^ -^were among the first settlers 
bf Manhattan Island, but they were not granted the 
privileges of worship until the English occupation 
in 1664. Early Swedish and German immigrants 
planted Churches in Pennsylvania and Delaware. 
The first synod was organized in Pennsylvania in 
1748. A general synod was formed in 1820, which 
aimed at a union of all Lutheran bodies in the 
United States. But the Lutherans in this country 
remain split up into a great number of separate 
bodies, or synods, formed in some instances accord- 
ing to locality and in others on the basis of the lan- 
guage used. The following order shows the com- 
parative strength of various Lutheran bodies ac- 
cording to language used: German, German-Eng- 
lish, English, Norwegian, Swedish, Danish, Ice- 
landic, Finnish. 

During recent years the Lutheran bodies have 
shown a larger percentage of growth than any of 
7 97 



HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

the other large Protestant bodies in the United 
States. This is due in part to immigration ; but the 
Lutherans are very aggressive, and their Church 
activities are manifold and constantly expanding. 
The Lutheran bodies maintain parochial schools, 
twenty-nine theological seminaries, forty-one col- 
leges, a foreign mission force of two hundred and 
fifty missionaries, large home evangelistic forces, 
immigrant stations, orphanages, and hospitals. 
The twenty-one bodies reporting do not differ ma- 
terially in doctrine. In polity the sovereignty of 
the local congregation is recognized, but the synods 
have a measure of judicial and executive authority. 

The following are the various divisions, with the 
membership of each for 1914, and the principal lo- 
cality of the larger divisions is given in cases where 
the name does not suggest it : 

1. General Synod, strongest in Pennsylvania, Ohio, 

Maryland, and New York 340,441 

2. United Synod South, North Carolina, Virginia, 

and other Southern States 52,188 

3. General Council, Pennsylvania, New York, Min- 

nesota, Illinois, and Iowa 479,765 

4. Synodical Conference, Middle West and North- 

west 850,772 

5. United Norwegian (independent synods), North- 

west 168,363 

6. Ohio 136,923 

7. Buffalo 5,534 

8. Hauge's (Norwegian), Minnesota and Northwest. 39,748 

9. Eielson's, Northwest 1,100 

10. Texas 4,500 

11. Iowa 116,912 

12. Norwegian, Northwest 96,005 

13. Danish in America, Iowa and Wisconsin 16,487 

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HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

14. Icelandic, North Dakota 3,805 

15. Immanuel, Pennsylvania and Ohio 19,000 

16. Suomai (Finnish), Michigan 15,000 

17. Finnish Apostolic, Michigan 22,000 

18. Finnish National 8,000 

19. Norwegian Free, Northwest 26,050 

20. Danish United, Minnesota and Wisconsin 13,337 

21. Church of the Lutheran Brethren 2,000 

Independent congregations 27,500 

Total Lutherans 2,388,722 

The bodies showing the largest numerical increase 
are: General Synod, Synodical Conference, the Im- 
manuel and Norwegian branches. 



MENNONITES. 

The Mennonites are the successors of the Ana- 
baptists, a name given to the scattered elements of 
a party which arose in Switzerland about 1523. 
The movement was directed chiefly against infant 
baptism, and their converts were rebaptized; hence 
the name. The Anabaptists were mercilessly per- 
secuted, and they became divided, one branch going 
off into mysticism, the other into the wildest fanati- 
cism. The latter undertook to establish the king- 
dom of God on earth by force. The city of Miinster 
was forcibly taken and made the center of the pro- 
posed kingdom. A community of goods was in- 
stituted, polygamy was adopted, missionaries were 
sent out, and threats delivered to the governing 
princes of surrounding States to surrender on pain 
of death. Under "King" John of Leyden the Miin- 
ster fanatics are said to have practiced the grossest 

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HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

licentiousness. The city was reduced in 1535, the 
leaders executed, and their forces were scattered. 

Menno Simons, a converted Roman Catholic 
priest, who had been a preacher of the sect, but who 
had opposed the Miinster party, succeeded in gath- 
ering many of the scattered Miinsterites and or- 
ganizing congregations in the Netherlands and in 
Germany on a more spiritual basis. His work of 
reorganization after the Miinster disaster led to 
the new body's taking his name. 

The Mennonite Confession of Faith, adopted in 
Holland in 1632 and which still forms the doctrinal 
basis of the Church, consists of eighteen articles. 
These embody the doctrines of the Trinity, the fall 
of man, and the atonement as held by all evangeli- 
cal Churches. Among the distinctive doctrines are 
those of nonresistance and forbidding the use of 
oaths. Baptism is administered to believers only 
by pouring, except in one or two branches. The 
Lord's Supper is observed but twice a year, usually 
in the spring and fall, preceded by Church exami- 
nations into the standing and character of every 
member. Strict discipline is enforced against of- 
fending members. Following the observance of 
the Lord's Supper, the ceremony of foot-washing 
is performed, during which, as well as in the "kiss 
of peace" following the ceremony, the sexes are 
separated. The bearing of arms and holding office 
under the State are discouraged. 

The Mennonites have bishops, or elders, who 
exercise administrative oversight in districts. Pas- 
tors of congregations are chosen from the congre- 
gation to be served, sometimes by lot. Deacons are 

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HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

also chosen from the congregation in the same man- 
ner. In the absence of the minister the deacon 
takes charge of pubHc meetings. 

The Mennonites now number throughout the 
world about 250,000, of which 60,000 are in Hol- 
land, 18,000 in Germany, a few in Switzerland and 
France, 70,000 in Russia, 20,000 in Canada, and a 
total of 57,337 (1911) in the United States, the 
number in this country being distributed among 
twelve branches. Pennsylvania, where Mennonite 
immigrants first settled in 1683, is still the State 
of their greatest strength, and here they retain their 
early language, known as "Pennsylvania Dutch." 
Mennonites are numerous also in the States of 
Ohio, Kansas, Indiana, and Illinois. 



METHODISTS. 

"It was just at the time," to use the words of the 
founder of Methodism, "when we wanted but little 
of filling up the measure of iniquity that two or 
three clergymen of the Church of England began 
vehemently to call sinners to repentance." There 
were sinners enough, if the universal testimony of 
the literature bearing on the period is true. Infi- 
delity, vice, drunkenness, licentiousness, grossness, 
extravagance, corruption are some of the terms 
used to characterize the morals of what called itself 
the best society of England during the first half of 
the eighteenth century. At the opposite social ex- 
treme the masses had sunk into degradation and 
hopelessness bordering on heathenism. The crimi- 

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HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATION^ 

nal classes, increasing in numbers and boldness, 
terrorized the population, notwithstanding the ex- 
treme harshness of the laws. Powerless in the face 
of such conditions, the Established Church was it- 
self in need of rescue. Its theology was "cold and 
colorless," its clergy for the most part "ignorant, 
indolent, and unspiritual, preaching not good news, 
but good advice." According to Leckey, "beyond a 
belief in the doctrine of the Trinity and a general 
acknowledgment of the veracity of the four Gospel 
narratives, the divines of that day taught little 
which might not have been taught by the disciples 
of Socrates or the followers of Confucius." Arch- 
bishop Seeker acknowledges that "Christianity is 
now ridiculed and railed at with very little reserve 
and the teachers of it without any at all." 

But even in such times there were devout souls 
"waiting for the consolation of Israel." One such 
was Samuel Wesley, rector of Epworth parish, 
whose prophetic words addressed to his son Charles, 
"The Christian faith will surely revive in this king- 
dom; you shall see it, but I shall not," were soon 
to come true. The first step toward the revival, 
and the beginning of Methodism, dates from No- 
vember, 1729, when a small company of Oxford 
students began to spend certain evenings in the 
week in reading the New Testament and in prayer. 
They gave themselves also to many works of 
charity. The methodical conduct of their lives 
gained them the name of Methodists, given in de- 
rision by their fellow students. The first Meth- 
odists were John and Charles Wesley, Robert Kirk- 
ham, and William Morgan. George Whitefield was 

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a later accession to the Oxford company. The rul- 
ing spirit of this group of Methodists, and the cen- 
tral and dominant figure of Methodism as long as 
he lived, was John Wesley (born 1703, died 1791). 
Wesley was well fitted both by birth and training 
for the place he filled. He had on both sides a dis- 
tinguished ministerial ancestry, of Nonconformist 
views, but his father had taken orders in the Church 
of England. Wesley took his master's degree at 
Oxford in 1724, was ordained deacon in 1725, and 
elected a fellow of Lincoln College the following 
year. He was ordained priest in 1728 and for a 
short time was curate to his father at Epworth, but 
was recalled to Oxford. It was during this second 
residence that he became leader of the Oxford 
Methodists. 

The little Oxford circle is important in Methodist 
history in that it gave rise to the name and gave 
expression to a revolt against the spiritual dead- 
ness of the times; but these pious students awak- 
ened nobody at this time, because they were seeking 
their own peace by the observance of a punctilious 
legal righteousness. The Wesleys went to Georgia 
in 1736, Charles as secretary to General Oglethorpe 
and John as missionary to the Indians. On the out- 
ward voyage John was deeply impressed with the 
religious views of some Moravian fellow pas- 
sengers and particularly at the self-possession and 
trust they displayed during a violent storm. His 
two years' ministry in Georgia he accounted a fail- 
ure, and he returned to England with a melancholy 
view of his own religious condition. He sought 
out a Moravian society in Aldersgate Street, Lon- 

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don, and attended their meetings. It was at one of 
these on the evening of May 29, 1738, while hearing 
the reading of Luther's preface to the Epistle to the 
Romans, in which the great reformer explained the 
way of salvation by faith, that Wesley found peace. 
To use his own words: "I felt my heart strangely 
warmed; I felt that I did trust in Christ, in Christ 
alone, for salvation ; and an assurance was given me 
that he had taken away my sins, even mine, and 
saved me from the law of sin and death." "In that 
moment," says Dr. J. M, Buckley, "evangelical 
Methodism was born." 

Charles Wesley (who had returned to England) 
and George Whitefield had already enjoyed a new 
experience and were now preaching salvation by 
faith, the latter to thousands in the open air. The 
Wesleys, because of their High Church notions, 
were cautious on the point of outdoor preaching; 
but finding the doors of the Established Church 
closed against them, and observing the eagerness 
of the masses to hear the gospel, John Wesley soon 
followed Whitefield's example. The revival spread 
with wonderful rapidity and with a revolutionary 
effect upon English life. Wesley became the leader 
in this movement, as he had been in its forerunner 
at Oxford, not by self-appointment, but by natural 
gifts and providential leading. He was soon con- 
fronted with the necessity of caring for thousands 
of converts for whom the Church of England had 
no place. Wesley entertained no thought of a new 
Church and seems to have had no plans beyond 
meeting the exigencies of the new situation. The 
first society of converts was brought together in 

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HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

1739 and attached to a Moravian congregation in 
Fetter Lane, London. Wesley soon found it neces- 
sary to dissent from some doctrines taught by the 
Moravians, and in the following year he transferred 
his society to an old and disused government build- 
ing known as the Foundry, and here in July, 1740, 
"The Methodist Society in London" was formed. 
The Foundry was for many years the headquarters 
of Methodism. 

Within five years after his first open-air sermon 
Wesley had forty-five preachers associated with 
him in conserving the work of the revival, and there 
were more than two thousand members of the so- 
cieties in London alone. Whitefield, who was a 
stanch Calvinist, broke with Wesley on account of 
the latter's Arminianism, and a small following of 
Calvinistic Methodists went with him. The chief 
contribution of Charles Wesley to the revival and 
to modern evangelical Christianity was his hymns. 
A few of Wesley's colaborers were clergymen from 
the Church of England; but he relied mainly upon 
the lay preachers raised up by the movement. 
These were unordained itinerating evangelists, who, 
in the zeal and joy of their new-found life, pro- 
claimed an effective gospel. *'After Wesley, lay- 
men were the founders of Methodism," says John 
Alfred Faulkner. "It was their preaching, their 
sufferings, their heroism which turned the tide of 
immorality and irreligion and, as Leckey well says, 
saved England from a French Revolution." 

The thousands of converts, stirred into a new life 
under this powerful preaching and gathered for the 
most part from the middle and lower classes, the 

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HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

great neglected population, were brought together 
in societies, and these divided into classes, over 
which leaders were appointed for close supervision 
of the member's spiritual progress. Many chapels 
were reared to house the new congregations. Wes- 
ley grouped together several congregations and put 
them in charge of one of his assistants, thus origi- 
nating the circuit system. In 1743 he drew up the 
General Rules, which are still recognized in every 
branch of Methodism as a model digest of Scriptural 
rules of conduct. Wesley had his preachers and 
leaders meet in quarterly and district conferences 
and, beginning in 1744, in annual conferences. 
Every interest of the rapidly expanding movement 
had over it the trained eye of Wesley himself, whose 
labors were prodigious. He visited every part of 
the British Isles, most of the territory over and 
over again, preached from two to four times daily, 
and traveled (on horseback until advancing age 
compelled him to use a carriage) about 4,500 miles 
a year. He found time for an amazing amount ol 
literary work. 

Though the Wesleyan revival was, theoretically, 
a movement within the Church of England, and 
both John and Charles Wesley lived and died with- 
out ever severing their relations with that com- 
munion, the continued inhospitable attitude of the 
Established Church toward the Methodists made 
the case only too plain that they must provide for 
themselves. Wesley reluctantly became reconciled 
to this fact and accordingly, toward the close of his 
life, instituted measures to prevent the dissolution 
of the societies after his death. By the Deed of 

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HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

Declaration, drawn up in 1784, the Yearly Confer- 
ence was given a permanent legal standing. This 
act secured the property to the societies and gave 
all the congregations a permanent connectional ex- 
istence. But it was not until after Wesley's death 
(1791) that English Methodism developed into a 
Church, taking the name of Wesleyan Methodist 
Connection. The steps taken after the death of 
Wesley had reference to holding service at church 
hours, which Wesley had opposed out of regard to 
the Established Church, receiving the sacraments 
in their own chapels from their own ministers, lay 
representation in the conferences, and larger liber- 
ties of local societies in the conduct of their own af- 
fairs. 

In polity Wesleyan Methodism is described as 
"neither Episcopal, Presbyterian, nor Congrega- 
tional, but has characteristics of each." The Yearly 
Conference is the ruling body for the whole connec- 
tion, subject to conditions laid down in the Deed of 
Declaration. It is a threefold conference, being in 
part an assembly of pastors, having to do with 
questions pertaining to the ministry; in part "it is 
a conjoint assembly of ministers and lay brethren 
convened to receive reports, deliberate and deter- 
mine in regard to the general interest of the con- 
nection." And at the close the "Legal Conference, 
as a matter of necessary legal form and solemnity, 
adopts what has been done in the sessions of the 
General Conference." The provincial "synod" occu- 
pies a place intermediate to the conference and the 
local, or circuit, meetings. The synod may nullify 
an act of the conference by refusing to ratify it. 

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The administration of the affairs of each society is 
vested in the leaders' meeting; that of the whole 
circuit in a quarterly meeting composed of the lay 
officers of the circuit. There is also a local preach- 
ers' quarterly meeting, presided over by the "super- 
intendent minister" of the circuit.* 

Divisions in English Methodism have given rise 
to (i) the Calvinistic Methodists, noted above 
(after Whitefield's death these divided, one branch 
being known as Lady Huntingdon's Connection. 
It has disappeared. The branch that survives is 
the Welsh Calvinistic Methodists. See "Presby- 
terians") ; (2) the Methodist New Connection, 
formed in 1797; (3) the Primitive Methodist Con- 
nection, 1810; (4) the Bible Christians, 1815; (5) 
the Protestant Methodists, 1828; (6) the Wesleyan 
Methodist Association, 1835. The most serious di- 
vision occurred in 1849-57, when a number of min- 
isters and 120,000 members left the main body on 
account of the autocratic rule of Jabez Bunting, the 
President of the Conference. These joined in union 
with the Protestant Methodists and Association 
Methodists and formed the United Methodist 
Church. The three main bodies of Methodists at 
the present time are the Wesleyan Methodists, the 
Primitive Methodists, and the United Methodists. 
There is a small body known as the Wesleyan Re- 
form Union and a number of independent Meth- 
odist Churches. 

*For a full exposition of the importance of the lay preachers 
in British Methodism, see article "Local Preachers in the 
British Wesleyan Church," in Methodist Review, January, 
1915. 

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HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

The following statistics are taken from the Meth- 
odist Yearbook for 191 5: 

Church 

Lay Members 

Denomination. Ministers. Preachers. and Pro- 

Wesleyan Methodists: bationers. 

Great Britain 2,513 19,463 508,563 

Ireland 250 646 28,1 16 

Foreign Missions 681 5,524 166,851 

French Conference 41 82 1,715 

South African Conference 280 4,300 131,474 

Primitive Methodists 1,157 I5,7i8 207,356 

United Methodist Church 851 6,224 185,486 

Wesleyan Reform Union 26 490 8,519 

Independent Methodist Churches.. 411 8,905 

Australasian Methodist Church... 985 8,634 149,878 

New Zealand Methodist Church... 199 949 23,181 

Japan Methodist Church 215 14,569 

Totals 7,609 62,032 1,434,613 

The first Methodist society in America was or- 
ganized in New York in 1766 as a result of the 
preaching of Philip Embury, an Irish local preacher, 
who was aroused to duty by Barbara Heck, another 
Irish immigrant. To Barbara Heck, who is called 
the mother of American Methodism, is due also the 
planting of the cause in Canada, whither she re- 
moved with her family in 1774. Embury in New 
York was soon reenforced by Thomas Webb, an 
English local preacher and captain in the British 
army. The work prospered, occupying at first Em- 
bury's house, then an old sail loft, and in 1768 its 
own church building, "Wesley Chapel," now John 
Street Church. About the same time Robert Straw- 
bridge, another Irish immigrant, started an awaken- 
ing in Maryland by his preaching, assisted by 

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Robert Williams, who became the apostle of Meth- 
odism in Virginia and the Carolinas. Strawbridge 
built a log meetinghouse on Sam's Creek, in Mary- 
land, which contests with the New York chapel the 
honor of being the first Methodist church in the 
New World. 

Captain Webb planted Methodism in Philadelphia 
and formed classes in New Jersey and other parts. 
Webb returned to England, and it was through his 
influence that Wesley's attention was directed to 
the needs in America. At the conference in 1769 
Richard Boardman and Joseph Pilmoor were ap- 
pointed to assist their brethren on this side, and 
they brought over £50 which had been col- 
lected at the conference "as a token of brotherly 
love" for the assistance of the American societies. 
Francis Asbury and Richard Wright were sent over 
in 1771, Asbury coming as "assistant superintend- 
ent" of the new societies. Asbury was soon super- 
seded by Thomas Rankin, who arrived with Wes- 
ley's authority to become "superintendent of the 
entire work of Methodism in America.'* To Ran- 
kin belongs the distinction of convening and pre- 
siding over the first conference in America, held in 
Philadelphia in 1773. Ten preachers were present, 
and 1,560 members were reported, the bulk of them 
being in Maryland and Virginia. The list of ap- 
pointments made at that conference was as follows : 
New York, Thomas Rankin; Philadelphia, George 
Shadford; New Jersey, John King and William 
Watters ; Baltimore, Francis Asbury, Robert Straw- 
bridge, Abraham Whitworth, and Joseph Yearby; 
Norfolk, Richard Wright ; Petersburg, Robert Wil- 

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HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

Hams. The conference acknowledged the authority 
of Wesley and the British Conference and resolved 
that the preachers should strictly avoid administer- 
ing the sacraments, as not one of them had been 
ordained. 

The Methodists in America prior to the Revolu- 
tion, like their brethren in England before Wesley's 
death, regarded themselves as members of the 
Church of England, and they depended upon a 
grudging English clergy for the sacraments. But 
during the war most of the English clergy left the 
country, and when independence was secured the 
Established Church came to an end in America. 
The war had separated the societies from this 
Church, and it was inevitable that they should now 
become independent of English Methodism and set 
up for themselves. The question of administering 
the ordinances had been up at nearly every confer- 
ence since the first, but "laid over for another year," 
until at the conference — or a branch of it repre- 
senting the Southern colonies — held at Fluvanna, 
Va., in 1779 it was resolved to refuse the people the 
ordinances no longer. The next year the practice 
was given up in response to overtures from Asbury 
and other brethren. "Certainly it was a modest 
role the early Methodists were content to play — to 
bring the people to Jesus and send them to the Epis- 
copalians and Presbyterians for the sacraments. 
But it was a role that could not in the nature of 
things be permanent. For look at the increase, 
2,035 i^ this fifth year of the war, making 10,539 
in all, and fifty-five preachers." (Faulkner, "The 
Methodists.") This anomalous condition came to 

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HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

an end in 1784, the same year that marks the prac- 
tical settlement of English Methodism by the Deed 
of Declaration. Wesley's famous account of the 
steps he took and the reasons therefor in response 
to the appeals of the American societies is, with 
slight abridgment, as follows : 

By a very uncommon train of providences many of the 
provinces of America are totally disjoined from the mother 
country and erected into independent States. The English 
government has no authority over them, either civil or eccle- 
siastical. . . . No one either exercises or claims any ec- 
clesiastical authority at all. In this peculiar situation some of 
the inhabitants of these States desire my advice, and in com- 
pliance with their desire I have drawn up a little sketch. 

Lord King's account of the Primitive Church convinced 
me, many years ago, that bishops and presbyters are the same 
order and consequently have the same right to ordain. For 
many years I have been importuned from time to time to 
exercise this right by ordaining a part of our preachers. But 
I have still refused, not only for peace' sake, but because I 
was determined as little as possible to violate the established 
order of the national Church to which I belonged. 

But the case is widely different between England and 
North America. Here there are bishops who have a legal 
jurisdiction; in America there are none, neither any parish 
minister. So that for some hundreds of miles together there 
are none either to baptize or to administer the Lord's Supper. 
Here, therefore, my scruples are at an end; and I conceive 
myself at full liberty, as I violate no order and invade no 
man's rights> by appointing and sending laborers into the 
harvest. 

I have, accordingly, appointed Dr. Coke and Mr. Francis 
Asbury to be joint superintendents of our brethren in America, 
as also Richard Whatcoat and Thomas Vasey to act as elders 
among them by baptizing and administering the Lord's Sup- 
per. . . . 

If any one will point out a more rational and Scriptural 
way of feeding and guiding these poor sheep in the wilderness, 

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HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

I will gladly embrace it. At present I cannot see any better 
method than that I have taken. ... I desired the Bishop 
of London to ordain one, but I could not prevail. ... If 
they could ordain them now, they would expect to govern 
them; and how grievously this would entangle us! As our 
American brethren are now disentangled both from the State 
and English hierarchy, we dare not entangle them again, either 
with the one or the other. They are now at full liberty simply 
to follow the Scriptures and the Primitive Church. And we 
judge it best that they should stand fast in that liberty where- 
with God has so strangely set them free. 

In fulfillment of their appointed mission Coke, 
Whatcoat, and Vasey arrived in America in 1784 
and immediately got in touch with Asbury and 
other leaders. A conference was called which con- 
vened in Baltimore on December 24 of that year. 
Coke presided and unfolded Wesley's plan. The 
conference readily and unanimously fell in with it 
and proceeded with the organization of the Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church in America. Wesley's ap- 
pointment of Coke and Asbury as superintendents 
was confirmed by election of the Conference, and 
Asbury was ordained deacon, elder, and superin- 
tendent, and other deacons and elders were or- 
dained, Coke being assisted in the ordinations by 
Whatcoat and Vasey. A discipline was adopted, 
containing the General Rules and Articles of Re- 
ligion, abridged by Wesley from the Thirty-Nine 
Articles, the new form being stripped of all dis- 
tinctly Catholic and Calvinistic elements, and a 
liturgy, also prepared by Wesley. The liturgy was 
never much used in the Churches and soon dropped 
out of notice entirely. The same is true also of 
"gowns and bands, which had a brief vogue." The 
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HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

salary of the regular preachers was fixed at sixty- 
four dollars a year, with an extra allowance for wife 
and children, but "with distinct prohibition of any 
fee or present for marriages, baptisms, or funerals." 
A fund for worn-out preachers was established, 
supported mainly by the active preachers. 

The Church now set on its way had 104 traveling 
preachers, as many local preachers, 60 chapels, 800 
recognized preaching places, and 18,000 members. 
(Buckley.) "Coke went everywhere, baptizing chil- 
dren and administering the Lord's Supper, as did 
Asbury wherever opportunity offered." In 1787 
the superintendents took the title of bishop "for 
brevity's sake," and the Conference approved. Coke 
soon returned to England, making thereafter only 
brief visits to America ; and the direction of the new 
and rapidly expanding organization came to be cen- 
tered in Asbury, "the chief figure in the religious 
history of the United States in the visible and trace- 
able results of his labors," according to a non- 
Methodist observer. In truth, the travels, labors, 
and close oversight of Asbury in America matched 
the work of Wesley in England. "For forty years 
under Asbury the headquarters of American Meth- 
odism was in the saddle." He traveled 270,000 
miles, ordained over 4,000 preachers, and presided 
in 234 Annual Conferences. Names next to that of 
Asbury in the early history of American Methodism 
are those of Jesse Lee, who entered New England 
in 1789 and after eleven years left that country with 
fifty preachers and six thousand members, and Wil- 
liam McKendree, who, as a pioneer presiding elder, 
established Methodism in the Western and South- 

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HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

western States and after his elevation to the epis- 
copacy in 1808 left a marked impression on the 
whole Church as a preacher and executive. 

The Conference of 1784 adjourned without mak- 
ing provision for another General Conference. But 
Conferences embracing the whole Church were held 
irregularly until 1812, when the first delegated Gen- 
eral Conference came into existence. Annual Con- 
ferences — referring to geographical districts — ^date 
from 1796, when the territory of the Church was 
first mapped out into Conferences with names and 
definite boundaries. The office of presiding elder 
and the presiding elders' districts grew out of the 
appointment and ordination of a number of elders 
at the Conference of 1784 to travel over a group of 
circuits to administer the sacraments. 

The harmony among Methodists which charac- 
terized the inauguration of their system of Church 
government did not remain long undisturbed. At 
the Conference of 1792 the Rev. James O'Kelley in- 
troduced a resolution proposing to give the preach- 
ers the right of appeal to the Conference if aggrieved 
at an appointment. O'Kelley was a presiding elder 
from Virginia, at that time the banner Methodist 
State, and he had a considerable following which 
gave his resolution warm support. But it failed; 
and, smarting under its failure and smarting at 
Bishop Asbury, "whose wings O'Kelley had pur- 
posed to clip," O'Kelley left the Conference, accom- 
panied by a few of his adherents, and returned to 
Virginia. A new sect was formed, taking the name 
of Republican Methodists. These later became one 

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HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

of the elements forming another denomination. 
(See "Christian Connection.") 

The agitation for larger privileges of laymen in 
the Church came up for consideration at the Gen- 
eral Conference of 1828. An effort was made to 
obtain lay representation in the Church councils, 
but the proposal was rejected. The agitation did 
not cease, but continued until many of the reformers 
were expelled from the Church, and many others 
left out of sympathy. At a meeting of these, held 
in Baltimore in 1828, a provisional Church organiza- 
tion was formed, which, two years later at a more 
largely attended Conference in the same city, was 
completed as the Methodist Protestant Church. 
Within a few years the new organization drew 
away 50,000, many prominent ministers and laymen 
among them. The laymen were given full rights 
in all Church councils, a reform which has since 
been adopted in other branches of Methodism. The 
Methodist Protestant has come to be the largest 
body of nonepiscopal Methodists in the United 
States. 

The slavery question produced the next dis- 
turbance in Methodist history, dividing the Church 
seventeen years before it divided the nation. Prior 
to the division of the Church, however, a small but 
radical antislavery and antisecret society element 
split off and formed at Utica, N.Y., May 31, 1843, 
the Wesleyan Methodist Connection of America. 
The episcopate was rejected, the itinerancy modi- 
fied, laymen were introduced into their Conferences, 
and connection with slavery or secret societies was 
prohibited. The Church began with about 6,000 

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HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

members, which increased in less than two years 
to 15,000; but after slavery was abolished thou- 
sands of its members returned to the Methodist 
Episcopal Church. 

The ''bisection" of the Church occurred in 1844 
and was occasioned by the case of James O. An- 
drew, a Southern bishop who had become by mar- 
riage and inheritance a slaveholder. The General 
Conference of that year passed a resolution request- 
ing Bishop Andrew to "desist from the exercise of 
his office so long as this impediment remains." The 
Southern delegates presented a protest on behalf of 
"nearly 5,000 ministers and a membership of nearly 
500,000 constitutionally represented" in the Con- 
ference. A plan of separation was adopted, and 
after the adjournment of the General Conference the 
Southern delegates met and decided to hold the 
matter of a separate organization in abeyance until 
a convention of representatives of all the Southern 
Conferences could be held. A convention was 
called, which met at Louisville, Ky., in May, 1845. 
At this meeting the Methodist Episcopal Church, 
South, began its existence as a separate body. 

The two Churches, which are "sister Churches 
of equal age and honor," have continued as separate 
bodies, though there is a growing fraternalism be- 
tween them, and tentative efforts have been made 
back and forth looking to reunion. The proposals 
for reunion also embrace the Methodist Protestant 
Church. The Church, South, has made more liberal 
provisions for laymen in its councils than the North- 
ern Church and has abolished the probationary fea- 
ture of Church membership, still retained by the 

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HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

other. But it retains the time Hmit on pastors and 
excludes women as delegated representatives in the 
Conferences, differing in both points from the 
Church, North. In the Methodist Episcopal Church 
Conferences having both white and colored mem- 
bers are allowed to be divided on race lines 'Vhen 
it shall be requested by a majority of the white and 
also a majority of the colored members, but in no 
case when it is not clearly to be seen that such di- 
vision would improve the work." 

At the Christmas Conference in 1784 three elders 
were ordained for missionary work, two of them for 
Nova Scotia and one for Antigua, West Indies. At 
this Conference also Thomas Coke, who was deeply 
imbued with the missionary spirit, raised what was 
perhaps the first missionary collection in this coun- 
try, amounting to $150. Coke, by his tireless in- 
terest in foreign missions and by his own many 
voyages and sacrifices in the interest of the cause, 
left a permanent impression upon both English and 
American Methodism. In 1813 he set out for In- 
dia to establish a mission there, but died and was 
buried at sea. Methodist foreign missions had been 
carried on for a generation, and there were upward 
of one hundred missionaries in the field before a 
missionary society was ever formed. The Bible 
and Missionary Society was founded in 1819, 
changed to the Missionary Society in 1820, and con- 
tinued so until 1907, when it was succeeded by the 
Board of Foreign Missions of the Methodist Epis- 
copal Church. The operations of this Board ex- 
tend to Africa, China, Japan. Korea, India, and 

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HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

Malaysia, as well as to South America, Italy, Mexi- 
co, France, the Philippines, Madeira, Bulgaria, and 
Russia. The disbursements for foreign missions, 
exclusive of woman's work, amounted in 1913 to 
$1,441,602. The Board of Home Missions and 
Church Extension assists in the support of four 
thousand preachers, operates in twenty colored 
Conferences, and helps to preach the gospel in 
twenty-five languages and dialects among foreign- 
ers. The Board has assisted in the erection of 
sixteen thousand Methodist churches. Its head- 
quarters are at Philadelphia. There are also wom- 
en's foreign and home mission societies. 

The Christmas Conference of 1784 also con- 
sidered the "project of a college." The first ven- 
ture was Cokesbury College, near Baltimore, opened 
in 1787, destroyed by fire in 1797, and never rebuilt. 
Bethel Academy, founded near Lexington, Ky., in 
1794, continues to exist, but after 1805 ceased to be 
a strictly Methodist school. Alleghany College, 
Meadville, Pa., was founded in 1815-17; Ohio Wes- 
leyan University was opened in 183 1. Other lead- 
ing Institutions of the Methodist Episcopal Church 
are: Baker University, Baldwin, Kans. '(1858) ; Bos- 
ton University, Boston, Mass. (1869); DePauw, 
University, Greencastle, Ind. (1897) ; Syracuse Uni- 
versity, Syracuse, N. Y. (1870) ; University of Den- 
ver (1864) ; Clark University, Atlanta, and Univer- 
sity of Chattanooga, in the South ; and Northwest- 
ern University, Evanston, 111. (1851), the greatest 
university In Methodism. Drew Theological Semi- 
nary, Madison, N. J., Garrett Biblical Institute, 
Evanston, 111., and Boston University School of 

119 



HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

Theology are the leading theological institutions. 
The latest and one of the largest educational proj- 
ects of the Methodist Episcopal Church is the 
American University, at Washington, a post- 
graduate school, founded in 1890. It was formally 
opened in 1914. It has assets valued at more than 
$3,000,000. The Church owns, all told, sixty-seven 
colleges and universities, nearly fifty secondary 
schools, eleven theological schools, fourteen hos- 
pitals, and about the same number of orphanages 
and child welfare institutions. 

The Methodist Episcopal Church, South, held its 
first General Conference at Petersburg, Va., in May, 
1846. It began its separate existence with 1,519 
traveling preachers, 2,833 local preachers, 327,284 
white members, 124,961 colored members, and 2,972 
Indian members. A missionary society was organ- 
ized and a mission in China projected. The Church 
increased rapidly in membership until the time of 
the war. At the General Conference which met in 
New Orleans in 1866, the first held since 1858, the 
statistics showed a loss in membership of 246,044. 
"The Missionary Society of the Church was $60,000 
in debt and the Publishing House practically in 
ruins. Of the 207,766 colored members in i860 in 
the Southern body, there remained at the close of 
the war only 48,742." But "the reconstructive 
spirit of this Conference and the statesmanship 
manifested . . . were a prophecy that the ravages 
of the war would soon be repaired." At this Con- 
ference the colored membership of the Church was 
set off into colored Conferences, and these were, 

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by mutual consent, organized into the Colored 
Methodist Episcopal Church in 1870. 

The Missionary Society formed at the first Gen- 
eral Conference was divided into Foreign and Do- 
mestic Boards in 1866; but in 1870 these were 
merged into the Board of Missions of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church, South, which administers both 
home and foreign work. The Board sustains mis- 
sions in China, Korea, Japan, Brazil, Mexico, Cuba, 
and Africa. The income for foreign missions for 
1913, including woman's work, amounted to $837,- 
760 and for home work $341,279. The headquarters 
of the Board are at Nashville, Tenn. There is a sep- 
arate Church Extension Board, located at Louis- 
ville, Ky., which has assisted in the erection of 
8,692 churches and 2,261 parsonages since its or- 
ganization. 

Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tenn., founded 
in 1872, one of the leading educational institutions 
in the country, was until recently under the con- 
trol of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. By 
a court decision in 1914 that Church was virtually 
deprived of control of the institution. The General 
Conference of May, 1914, authorized the founding 
of a university, and an institution of that class, 
with liberal financial backing, has been established 
in Atlanta, Ga. Southern Methodist University, 
Dallas, Tex., launched by the Texas Conferences 
and adopted by the General Conference as the uni- 
versity of the Church west of the Mississippi, is in 
process of building. Southwestern University, 
Georgetown, Tex., Central College, Fayette, Mo., 
Millsaps College, Jackson, Miss., Trinity College, 

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Durham, N. C, and the Randolph-Macon Colleges, 
in Virginia, are among the leading colleges. The 
Church has twenty-six higher institutions and a 
large number of secondary schools, five hospitals, 
and twelve orphanages. 

The foundation doctrines of Methodism are those 
commonly held by all evangelical Churches. But 
in Wesley's time "certain doctrines of the New 
Testament were neglected by the clergy and the 
Churches and robbed of their true proportion and 
emphasis, and these doctrines, which he considered 
vital to the spread of a pure Christianity, he ex- 
pounded, preached, and published.'* The peculiar 
doctrines of Methodism, therefore, have been from 
the beginning of its history those preached and ex- 
pounded by John Wesley. These are found in 
Wesley's Notes on the New Testament and in his 
published sermons. In American Methodism these 
standards are supplemented by the Twenty-Five 
Articles of Religion which Wesley abridged from 
the English articles. But Wesley's work was not 
so much creed-building as preaching, with the one 
thing of salvation of souls in view. And In this the 
Church which he founded has retained his spirit 
and purpose. The emphasis placed on preaching 
goes far to explain the success of the Methodist 
movement. "At a time when the prevailing type of 
Christianity was Calvlnlstic the Methodists came 
with the gospel of a free, full, and present salva- 
tion, which they preached with tremendous earnest- 
ness and without philosophical refinements." 

The ten propositions of Bishop John H. Vincent 

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HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

express in an admirable manner the beliefs of Meth- 
odists. They are as follows :* 

1. I believe that all men are sinners. 

2. I believe that God the Father loves all men and hates all 
sin. 

3. I believe that Jesus Christ died for all men, to make 
possible their salvation from sin and to make sure the salva- 
tion of all who believe in him. 

4. I believe that the Holy Spirit is given to all men to 
enlighten and to incline them to repent of their sins and to 
believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. 

5. I believe that all who repent of their sins and believe in 
the Lord Jesus Christ receive the forgiveness of sins. This 
is justification. 

6. I believe that all who receive the forgiveness of sins are 
at the same time made new creatures in Christ Jesus. This is 
regeneration. 

7. I believe that all who are made new creatures in Christ 
Jesus are accepted as children of God. This is adoption. 

8. I believe that all who are accepted as the children of God 
may receive the inward assurance of the Holy Spirit to that 
fact. This is the witness of the Spirit. 

9. I believe that all who truly desire and seek it may love 
God with all the heart, soul, mind, and strength, and their 
neighbors as themselves. This is entire sanctificatlon. 

10. I believe that all who persevere to the end, and only 
these, shall be saved in heaven forever. 

In Episcopal Methodism the General Conference 
is the supreme legislative, judicial, and executive 
body, with certain constitutional restrictions. It 
elects the heads of all connectional interests of the 
Church and the bishops, who are itinerant, in dis- 
tinction from diocesan, officers. The bishops, 
while elected for life and intrusted with large 
powers, have their characters and labors reviewed 

*Quoted from Faulkner, "The Methodists." 
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HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

by each General Conference, and they may be tried 
and expelled for cause. They are empowered to 
preside in Annual Conferences, ordain the preach- 
ers, and appoint them to their charges in consulta- 
tion with the presiding elders. The territory of the 
Church is divided into Annual Conferences and 
these into districts, over which are presiding elders 
(called district superintendents in the Methodist 
Episcopal Church), and each district holds annually 
a District Conference. There are also Quarterly 
Conferences, held by presiding elders, for each pas- 
toral charge, and Church Conferences, held by the 
pastor, in each local Church. 

The Methodist Episcopal bodies have a system 
of reporting statistics which insures completeness 
and accuracy. But their reports are by Conferences 
and not by States. In States where Conference 
boundaries do not cross State lines it is possible to 
show the membership within the State by using or 
combining the Conference returns. For purposes 
of comparison this is done where possible in the fol- 
lowing tables. The figures are for white English- 
speaking Conferences and are those of 1914 except 
where indicated: 

Methodist Episcopal Church. 

Arkansas 6,459 Kansas 136,415 

Arizona 2,822 Kentucky 23,933 

Colorado 33,307 Maine 12,568 

Florida* 2,815 Michigan 125,570 

Georgia (1913) 3,764 Minnesota 46,110 

Illinois 257,489 Missouri 75,389 

Indiana 242,046 Montana 10,240 

Iowa 170,407 Nebraska 68,570 

*Except western extremity. 
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HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

New Hampshire 15,085 Utah 1,640 

New Mexico 2,^2.^ Vermont 12,599 

North Dakota 1 1,460 Wisconsin 52,426 

Ohio 393,746 

The Alabama Conference, embracing Alabama 
and North Mississippi, reports 11,809 members; the 
Oklahoma, embracing Oklahoma and the larger part 
of Texas, 39,336; the Gulf, embracing Louisiana, 
South Mississippi, and East Texas, 5,756; the Blue 
Ridge and Atlantic, embracing North Carolina and 
a portion of South Carolina, 11,223; the Confer- 
ences embraced within the States of New York and 
Pennsylvania, including a portion of Connecticut, 
have 705,006 members. 

The total membership of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church in the United States is 3,603,265, a gain of 
187,497 for 1914. There are 18,881 active itinerant 
ministers and 28,245 churches. 

Methodist Episcopal Church, South. 

Alabama* 172,534 Montana 1,248 

Arkansas 104,455 North Carolina 184,987 

Colorado 1,805 Oklahoma 59,039 

Floridat 35,88o South Carolina 98,347 

Georgia 213,498 Texast 292,446 

Louisiana 36,450 

The Conferences of Missouri, embracing also 
Eastern Kansas, have a membership of 123,416; 
those of Tennessee, embracing also a small portion 
of Southwestern Kentucky and of Virginia and 
West Virginia, have 228,949 members, 

♦Including western extremity of Florida. 
tExcept western extremity. 



HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

The total membership of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, South, is 2,033,707, with a gain of 36,132 
in 1914. There are 7,099 ministers and 16,691 
churches. 

Methodist Protestant Church : Ministers, 1,371 ; 
churches, 2,348; members, 180,382. The last re- 
ports show a loss in membership. The Church is 
strongest in the States of Ohio, West Virginia, 
Maryland, and North Carolina. 

Wesleyan Methodist: Membership, 19,500. 

Congregational Methodist, organized in Georgia 
in 1852 by ministers and members withdrawing 
from the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, on 
account of dissatisfaction with certain features of 
Church poHty: Membership, 15,529. 

New Congregational Methodist (originated in 
Georgia in 1881) : Report for 1906, 1,782 members. 

Primitive Methodist (a branch of the Primitive 
Methodist Church of England, strongest in Penn- 
sylvania) : Membership, 8,210. 

Free Methodist : Organized in New York in i860 
by ministers and members who had been expelled 
or had withdrawn from the Methodist Episcopal 
Church on account of differences concerning mem- 
bership in secret societies and doctrinal questions. 
The new Church took the position that sanctifica- 
tion is instantaneous and subsequent to regenera- 
tion. The Church is strongest in New York, Illi- 
nois, and Iowa. Membership, 33,828. 

Reformed Methodist Union Episcopal : Member- 
ship, 4,000. 

Union American Methodist Episcopal (a colored 
body) : Membership, 19,000. 

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African Methodist Episcopal (Colored, North) : 
Membership, 620,000. 

African Union Methodist Protestant (colored) : 
Membership, 4,000. 

African Methodist Episcopal Zion (Colored, 
North) ; Membership, 568,000. 

Zion Union Apostolic : Membership in 1906, 3,059. 

Colored Methodist Episcopal, South: Member- 
ship, 240,798. 

Independent Methodist Churches: Membership, 
1,161. 

Total Methodists in the United States, 7,328,829. 

The Methodist membership of the world is re- 
ported (1914) at 9,228,385. (Methodist Yearbook.) 



MILLENNIAL DAWNISTS, OR RUS- 
SELLITES. 

A NAME somewhat generally applied to the fol- 
lowers of Charles T. Russell or to those who accept 
his theories. In 1866 appeared the first volume of 
a series of religious books by Russell, the whole 
series bearing the title of "Millennial Dawn." The 
books treat of the second coming of Christ, man's 
redemption and restitution, and the millennial reign 
of Christ on earth. The title of the books has been 
changed to "Studies in the Scriptures," and all the 
literature issued by the movement bears titles cal- 
culated "to allay suspicion and to commend the 
propaganda of Mr. Russell and his followers to the 
Christian public," as "People's Pulpit of Brooklyn," 
"International Bible Students' League," "Brooklyn 

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Tabernacle," and "Bible House and Tract Society." 
The works of Russell have been translated into 
many languages, and an enormous circulation is 
claimed for them. 

The following is a summary of the doctrines of 
the Millennial Dawnists (from "Millennial Dawn: 
A Counterfeit of Christianity," by Prof. William G. 
Morehead, D.D., in the Fundamentals) : 

1. Christ before his advent was not divine. 

2. When he was in the world he was still not divine. 

3. His atonement was exclusively human, a mere man's. 

4. Since his resurrection he is divine only, no longer human 
at all. 

5. His body was not raised from the dead. 

6. His second advent took place in 1874. 

7. The saints were raised up in 1878. 

8. Both Christ and the saints are now on earth and have 
been since the above dates. 

9. The professing Christian Church was rejected of God in 
1878. 

10. The final consummation and end will take place in 1914. 

11. There is silence as to the person and work of the Holy 
Spirit. 

12. As to the destiny of the wicked. (The finally impenitent 
to be annihilated.) 

Referring to the disposition of Christ's body at 
the resurrection, "Millennial Dawn" is quoted as 
follows: "Our Lord's human body was supernat- 
urally removed from the tomb; because had it re- 
mained there, it would have been an insurmountable 
obstacle to the faith of the disciples. . . . We 
know nothing about what became of it, except that 
it did not decay or corrupt. Whether it was dis- 
solved into gases or whether it is still preserved 

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HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

somewhere, ... no one knows; nor is such 
knowledge necessary." 

Concerning the final consummation of the age, 
October, 1914, was fixed by Russell as terminating 
absolutely the present order of things. "Dozens of 
times the writer of these books sets it down as posi- 
tive and unalterable. . . . It is then that the 
millennium, so long expected and so long yearned 
after, finally comes, and the planet celebrates its 
glad, its unending jubilee." 

Says Professor Morehead, referring to Russell's 
teaching on the destiny of the wicked : "The gro- 
tesque subject of one of his most popular lectures, 
a lecture he has delivered throughout our country, 
in Canada, and also in England, and published in a 
vast number of papers and periodicals, is 'To Hell 
and Back Again.' Crowds have listened with no 
little satisfaction to his assertions that there is no 
hell, no eternal punishment, and no hopelessness 
after death. He holds that in the resurrection, 
which is to include both the righteous and the 
wicked, the gospel of salvation shall be preached 
to all who did not receive it, though having heard, 
while in this life and to those who never had an 
opportunity while in the earthly life to hear and 
believe. For one hundred years the preaching to 
these classes shall continue, and the great mass of 
them will believe and enter into eternal life. Those 
who persistently refuse the ofifer of salvation and 
reject the Lord's mercy will be annihilated; an act 
of divine power will blot them out of existence for- 
ever." 

It is estimated that about fifty thousand persons 
9 129 



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(two-thirds of whom are in the United States and 
Canada) take an active interest in the study of 
''Millennial Dawn." "They are organized as bands 
of Bible students and disclaim any distinctive name. 
Each band elects an elder or elders, making selec- 
tion *by the stretching out of the hand/ a Scriptural 
method misunderstood, it is claimed, to have been 
'laying on of hands.* Pastor Russell, as he prefers 
to be called, superintends the promulgation of 
their literature. . . . Interested friends of the 
movement contribute Volunteer' workers and dis- 
tribute the pamphlets from house to house, and 
colporteurs give their time entirely to the circula- 
tion of 'Millennial Dawn.' "* 



MORAVIANS (UNITAS FRATREM). 

The Moravians trace their history back to John 
Huss, the Bohemian reformer, who was burned as a 
heretic at the Council of Constance in 141 5. The 
followers of Huss, known as Hussites, were divided 
into three branches, two of which made peace with 
the Roman Church and reentered that communion. 
The third held out as an independent body, coming 
to be called the Bohemian Brethren. They were 
relentlessly persecuted and scattered, but the rem- 
nant at length found an asylum under the protec- 
tion of Count Zinzendorf in Saxony. They founded 
the town of Herrnhut, which remains the Moravian 
center in Europe. 

*New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia, article "Millennial 
Dawn." 

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HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

Zinzendorf is regarded as the founder of the reor- 
ganized Moravian Church, or Unitas Fratrem 
(Unity of the Brethren). He was ordained bishop 
of the Moravians w^ithout, however, severing his 
relation with the Lutheran Church, of which he had 
been ordained a minister. Under Zinzendorf's in- 
fluence the Moravian colony, by separation from the 
world and diligent use of spiritual exercises, became 
a deeply religious society. But the society de- 
veloped without any purpose of separation from the 
State Church or of denominational expansion, being 
similar in this particular to the rise of the Meth- 
odist societies in the Church of England. And the 
Wesleyan movement in England was indebted in 
many respects to the Moravians, as John Wesley 
was deeply impressed on many occasions with the 
Moravian doctrines and life, and after his conver- 
sion he visited Herrnhut and studied the system of 
this colony. 

The Moravians established other communities on 
the Continent, in England, and America, sent out 
missionaries to the heathen, and founded schools 
for the benefit of those not members of the society. 
A characteristic feature of early Moravian history 
was its inner mission work, or Diaspora, in which 
they sought to convert individual members of the 
State Church without drawing them from that com- 
munion. 

The Moravian Church was planted in America 
by immigrants who landed in Georgia in 1735. Five 
years later this company removed to Pennsylvania, 
where the towns of Bethlehem and Nazareth were 
founded. A form of communism was adopted, 

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HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

which, after twenty years, was abolished. These 
colonists were active in missionary labors among 
the Indians in their own and neighboring States. 

The Moravian Brethren were the first Protestants 
to send missionaries to the heathen, and they have 
been noted for their missionary labors, particularly 
in hard and neglected fields. They planted a mis- 
sion in Greenland in 1733 and in 1900 transferred 
this mission to the Danish Lutheran Church, "there 
being no more professed heathen in this region." 
They maintain missions in Alaska and Labrador, 
among the Indians of North America, the negroes 
of the West Indies, in Nicaragua, British and Dutch 
Guiana, Cape Colony, German East Africa, Aus- 
tralia, and among the Tibetan people of Asia. 
They have a leper home near Jerusalem. Besides 
their missionary operations, the Moravians are for- 
ward in education, maintaining thirty-three schools, 
colleges, and seminaries. 

The Moravian Church is divided into four prov- 
inces for governmental purposes — the German, 
British, and the provinces in North and South 
America. The local affairs of each province are 
administered by a synod. The synod elects the 
executive board, which is composed of bishops and 
other ministers, and this board appoints the minis- 
ters to the various congregations. Every ten years 
a general synod convenes, composed of representa- 
tives from all the provinces and missions. 

In doctrine the Moravians believe in the total de- 
pravity of human nature. They emphasize the love 
of God, the divinity of Jesus Christ, justification by 
faith only, the person and work of the Holy Spirit, 

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HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

the fellowship of believers, and the second coming 
of Christ. There are three orders of ministers — 
bishops, presbyters, and deacons. In worship they 
observe ritualistic forms. The Church maintains a 
strict discipline among its members. 

In the United States there are (1914) 147 minis- 
ters, 143 churches, and 20,615 members. In a small 
body known as the Union Bohemians and Mo- 
ravians there are about one thousand members. 
The Moravians have in the world, including mem- 
bership in missions, 88 ministers, or, including na- 
tive helpers, 3,037 and 146,601 members. This does 
not include about 75,000 "society members," or 
members in the Diaspora societies. 



PENTECOSTAL CHURCH OF THE 
NAZARENE. 

This body resulted from a union formed at Chi- 
cago, 111., in October, 1907, of several Pentecostal, 
or Holiness, associations in the Eastern States and 
the Church of the Nazarene, another Holiness body, 
of California. In 1908 the Holiness Church of 
Christ, an organization of Holiness societies in the 
Southwest, went into the union. The membership 
of the associations forming the union had been 
drawn mainly from Methodist bodies, and the new 
Church shows a doctrinal kinship to the Methodists. 
Emphasis is placed upon the depravity of the race, 
the doctrine of entire sanctification as a work of 
grace subsequent to regeneration, and the second 
coming of Christ. The Church opposes the use of 

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alcoholic drinks and tobacco and membership in 
secret societies. 

The Church has grown rapidly since the union 
was accomplished, having when the union was com- 
pleted, in 1908, 575 ministers, 230 churches, and 
12,000 members, and in 1914 687 ministers, 708 
churches, and 27,526 members. It has missions in 
several foreign countries and is very active in evan- 
gelistic work in the home land. It has colleges in 
Rhode Island, California, and Texas. 

The general assembly and district assemblies are 
the connectional bodies of the Church. The general 
assembly elects "general superintendents," who pre- 
side in the assemblies, arrange assembly districts, 
ordain elders, appoint evangelists, and have general 
supervision of the work of the Church. Pastors are 
not appointed to their charges, but are elected or 
"called" by local Church boards. 



PRESBYTERIANS. 

The term Presbyterian, or Presbyterianism, 
strictly applied, refers only to a form of Church 
government and is not properly applicable to a sys- 
tem of doctrine or to forms of worship. The doc- 
trinal system known as Calvinism, while usually as- 
sociated with Presbyterianism, is held by many 
Churches not Presbyterian in government; and, on 
the other hand, there are Presbyterian bodies that 
profess other doctrines than Calvinism. The Pres- 
byterian Alliance, or Alliance of Reformed Churches 
throughout the World Holding the Presbyterian 

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HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

System, expresses the common basis of fellowship 
among these Churches. The Alliance embraces 
more than ninety organizations, having about 25,- 
000,000 adherents. 

John Calvin (1509-64), the Geneva reformer, was 
the founder of the Presbyterian system, and his 
teachings form the basis of the doctrinal standards 
of nearly all Presbyterian bodies. Calvin never 
founded a distinct denomination, but he expounded 
and put into practice the principles which in other 
countries and in other hands developed into the 
Presbyterian denominations. Calvin's influence was 
extended by the wide circulation of his writings 
and by a large number of preachers and reformers 
who visited Geneva from other lands. 

A noted visitor to Geneva was John Knox, of 
Scotland, who had previously embraced the evan- 
gelical doctrines. Knox spent eighteen months at 
Geneva, while an exile from his native land, and 
became a close friend and disciple of Calvin. Upon 
his return to Scotland (1555) Knox stirred the 
nobles and gentry by his fiery preaching, and as a 
result they united in 1557 in the first covenant, re- 
nouncing "the congregation of Satan, with all super- 
stitions, abominations, and idolatries thereof," and 
engaging to defend the Protestant faith. Three 
years later the Scotch Parliament abolished the 
Roman Catholic system and filled the places of the 
Roman clergy with Protestant ministers. Parlia- 
ment also adopted a Confession of Faith, which was 
chiefly the work of John Knox and Calvinistic in 
theology. In the same year the first General As- 
sembly met, which adopted a book of Discipline. 

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HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

This also reflects the influence of Knox; and while 
''it shows the effect of Knox's stay in Geneva, it 
likewise shows that Knox had a mind of his own," 
as the Genevan discipline was much altered. But 
in 1578 this book of Discipline was displaced by 
another, which "embodied the purest type of Pres- 
byterianism which had yet been set forth in the 
formularies of any of the Reformed Churches." In 
the final establishment of Presbyterianism a long 
conflict was waged with royalty and the advocates 
of episcopacy, in which the name of Andrew Mel- 
ville appears as the leading champion of Presby- 
terianism, and to him also is ascribed the author- 
ship of the second book of Discipline. In 1592 Par- 
Hament passed an act making Presbyterianism the 
national religion of Scotland. But it was not until 
nearly a century later (1690) that the Presbyterian, 
as opposed to the Episcopal, form of government 
gained the field. In that year the Presbyterian 
Church was again established by law on the basis 
of the Westminster Confession of Faith (which had 
displaced earlier confessions in 1647) ^^^ ^^^ Pres- 
byterian polity "as administered by general assem- 
blies, synods, presbyteries, and kirk sessions." 

Presbyterianism in Scotland at the present time 
is represented not only by the Church of Scotland, 
but by other bodies which have withdrawn from 
the Established Church. The United Presbyterian 
Church resulted from a union in 1847 of several 
small bodies which had separated from the State 
Church. The Free Church of Scotland originated 
in consequence of a collision between the civil and 
ecclesiastical powers, "the civil courts claiming not 

136 



HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

only the right to control the temporalities of the 
Church, but also the power to rule in spiritual af- 
fairs." The separation occurred in 1843. The 
United Free Church of Scotland is a result of the 
union of the two above-named independent bodies, 
consummated in 1900. A small number of minis- 
ters and, elders opposed the union and voted to con- 
tinue the Free Church. 

The comparative strength of the two leading 
bodies in Scotland is shown by the following fig- 
ures: 

Church of Scotland. 

Communicants 702,075 

Sunday school scholars 235,974 

United Free Church. 

Communicants 506,088 

Sunday school scholars 241,160 

Presbyterianism in England grew out of the Puri- 
tan movement. Many of the Puritan leaders, to es- 
cape persecution, had spent some time on the Con- 
tinent, where they had come in contact with Calvin 
and the Swiss reformers. The efforts of the Puritan 
party under this influence, from being originally 
mainly spent in protest against "popery," came to 
be more and more directed toward shaping the 
English Church after the Presbyterian model. The 
high-water mark of this movement was reached 
during the period of 1640-48. The Long Parlia- 
ment, which assembled in 1640, was dominated by 
Presbyterian sentiment, and it set itself immediately 
to consider the question of Church reform. In 1641 
it passed the famous remonstrance in which it was 

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HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

proposed that, "in order the better to effect the 
reformation in the Church, there should be a gen- 
eral synod of grave, pious, learned, and judicious 
divines who should consider all things necessary 
for the peace and good government of the Church." 
The Westminster Assembly was the outcome of 
this proposal. It convened in July, 1643, ^^^ ^^^ 
until early in 1649, during which period it met 1,163 
times. The Assembly formulated a Confession of 
Faith — the Westminster Confession — the Form of 
Church Government, the Directory for Worship, 
and the Larger and Shorter Catechism. The acts 
of the Assembly were approved by Parliament, and 
by an ordinance of that body passed in 1647 Pres- 
byterianism was made the established religion of 
England. This ordinance, however, was never put 
into general effect, and the Westminster Confes- 
sion, while adopted by the Church of Scotland, ob- 
tained only a limited recognition in England. When 
Cromwell came into power he threw his influence 
against Presbyterianism, and its disestablishment 
was completed with the restoration of the monarchy 
(1660), when the Anglican, or Episcopal, party 
came into power. As a result of the Act of Uni- 
formity (1662) more than two thousand Presby- 
terian ministers resigned their charges or were 
ejected from them, and thousands of members were 
imprisoned or fined. Though all dissenting bodies 
were later given a legal standing, Presbyterianism 
never reached its former strength. 

In 1910 the Presbyterian Church of England had 
85,775 communicants, 350 congregations, 12 Pres- 
byteries, which meet annually in a General Synod. 

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HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

In 1910 the Presbyterian Church in Ireland had 
106,000 members. There is also the Reformed 
Presbyterian Church, with 3,900 members, besides 
a small body known as the Seceder Church. 

The Welsh Calvinistic Methodist Connection, or 
Presbyterian Church of Wales, which is, next after 
the Churches in Scotland, the largest Presbyterian 
body in the British Isles, arose as a result of a re- 
vival begun in Wales during the time of the Wes- 
leyan revival in England. The Welsh movement 
had George Whitefield at its head for a time, and 
their societies were for many years associated with 
the Methodists of England. The Welsh societies 
were severed from the Church of England in 181 1. 
In 1907 this body had 185,935 members. 

There were Presbyterian elements in the first 
Puritan settlers of New England. The Churches of 
these early colonies were not purely Congregational 
nor purely Presbyterian, according to the Presby- 
terian historian Reed ("History of the Presbyterian 
Churches of the World"), but represented "a Con- 
gregationalized Presbyterianism or a Presbyterian- 
ized Congregationalism." The Presbyterian ele- 
ments grew stronger with the coming of fresh 
colonists, and the Churches of Connecticut came to 
be known as Presbyterian. But in the end the Con- 
gregational elements prevailed, and only those 
Presbyterian elements that drifted south and west 
became permanently a part of the Presbyterian 
Church. The beginnings of organized Presbyterian- 
ism were outside of New England and were prob- 
ably made by Francis Makemie, an Irish mission- 

139 



HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

ary sent out by the Presbytery of Lagan in 1681. 
He is called the "Father of American Presbyterian- 
ism." Rehoboth Church, in Maryland, organized 
about 1684, probably by Makemie, claims to be the 
first of American Presbyterian Churches, though 
the claim is contested. Makemie traversed the 
country from Massachusetts to South Carolina, 
ministering to a scattered population and meeting 
with much opposition on the part of an unfriendly 
government and much persecution at the hands of 
the Episcopal Church, which had been established 
by law in the colonies of New York, Virginia, and 
the Carolinas. In response to Makemie's appeal he 
was joined by two dissenting ministers from Lon- 
don, and by the end of the seventeenth century sev- 
eral congregations had been formed in Virginia, 
Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and New 
York. 

The first Presbytery was organized at Philadel- 
phia in 1706 with seven ministers. The first Synod 
was formed in 1716, composed of four Presbyteries, 
as follows : Philadelphia, with six ministers and 
churches; Newcastle, six ministers and churches; 
Snow Hill, with three ministers and churches ; and 
Long Island, with two ministers and several 
churches. In 1729 the Synod adopted the West- 
minster Confession as a doctrinal standard. Dif- 
ferences on the questions of revivals and ministerial 
education were accentuated by the visit of George 
Whitefield in 1739, and in 1741 a division into two 
parties occurred, which came to be known as Old 
Side and New Side. The Old Sides formed the 
Synod of Philadelphia, and the New Sides, or re- 

140 



HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

vival advocates, formed the Synod of New York. 
It was during the period of division that the New 
Sides founded the College of New Jersey (1746), 
now Princeton University. In 1758 the bodies re- 
united under the name of the Synod of New York 
and Philadelphia. The reunited body had ninety- 
eight ministers and about ten thousand members. 

During the Revolution the Presbyterians stood 
boldly and actively on the side of the colonies. 
John Witherspoon, a Presbyterian minister, was the 
only clerical signer of the Declaration of Independ- 
ence. After the war the Synod of New York and 
Philadelphia met in May, 1788, and resolved itself 
into the General Assembly of the Presbyterian 
Church in the United States of America. The 
Westminster Confession and Catechisms were re- 
adopted ; also a form of government, a book of Dis- 
ciphne, and Forms of Worship. It embraced four 
Synods — namely, the New York and New Jersey, 
the Philadelphia, the Virginia, and the Carolina — 
representing a total of seventeen Presbyteries, 419 
congregations, 180 ministers, and about 18,000 mem- 
bers. 

In 1801 a plan of union was entered into with the 
Congregational Churches of New England, which 
still had a considerable Presbyterian element, by 
which Presbyterian ministers might serve Congre- 
gational Churches and vice versa and also permitted 
the organization of mixed Churches. Under this 
plan Congregationalists going West or South usu- 
ally went into Presbyterian Churches. The plan 
also involved joint denominational agencies for 
missionary work. The plan of union, while it pro- 

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HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

moted the growth of Presbyterianism in the Middle 
West, led to a new and more serious division of the 
denomination. Doctrinal differences entered into 
the division, as well as the slavery question in a 
minor degree. The "Old School" wing were op- 
posed to the cooperative plan with the Congrega- 
tionalists, and they resisted what they regarded as 
the invasion of "strange doctrines" from New Eng- 
land and thought that the Church should not pro- 
nounce upon the subject of slavery. Matters came 
to a head in 1837, when the General Assembly, with 
an Old School majority, abrogated the plan of 
union with the Congregationalists, organized a 
Board of Foreign Missions, and excised four Synods 
in New York and Ohio. The excluded Synods or- 
ganized a separate Assembly, and the division of 
the Church into Old School and New School Pres- 
byterians was complete. 

Further divisions occurred over the slavery ques- 
tion just preceding the Civil War. The Southern 
Presbyteries of the New School Assembly withdrew 
in 1857 and organized the United Synod of the 
Presbyterian Church. At the outbreak of the war, 
in 1861, the Old School Presbyteries in the South 
organized the Presbyterian Church in the Confed- 
erate States of America. In 1863 a union of the two 
Southern bodies occurred, which in 1865 took the 
name of the "Presbyterian Church in the United 
States," now commonly called the Southern Pres- 
byterian Church. In 1869 the two Assemblies 
which had resulted from the division in 1837 into 
Old School and New School bodies were reunited 
"on the basis of the standards, pure and simple." 

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HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

Early in the century great revivals in Kentucky 
and Tennessee brought up a controversy in that 
section over the reception and ordination of min- 
isters who "were neither highly educated nor firm 
believers in the peculiar doctrines of the Presby- 
terian Church." The formation of the Cumberland 
Presbyterian Church resulted. In 1903 steps were 
taken looking to a reunion of the Churches. The 
General Assembly of the parent body had added 
new chapters to the Confession of Faith, "not to 
take the place of the Confession of Faith as a doc- 
trinal standard of the Presbyterian Church, but to 
be an interpretation of it." The modification, or 
interpretation, proved agreeable to a majority of the 
Presbyteries of the Cumberland Church, and the 
union was consummated in 1906 and 1907. (But 
see "The Cumberland Presbyterians," below.) 

The Presbyterian Church, U. S. A., is the largest 
Presbyterian body in the world, and its activities 
cover not only every part of the homeland, but it 
is one of the leading denominations in foreign mis- 
sion work. Its Foreign Mission Board, located in 
New York City, maintains more than twelve hun- 
dred missionaries, besides native helpers, in twenty- 
seven mission stations. The contributions to the 
Board exceed $1,500,000 annually. The Home Mis- 
sion Board, located in New York, in 1914 adminis- 
tered $1,833,173. The Church has founded or con- 
trols sixty-five colleges and universities. The lead- 
ing institution is Princeton University, Princeton, 
N. J., founded in 1746. Other important institu- 
tions are : Cumberland University, Lebanon, Tenn. ; 
Highland Park College, Des Moines, la. ; Milliken 

143 



HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

University, Decatur, 111. ; New York University, 
New York; Wooster College, Wooster, Ohio; and 
Trinity University, Waxahachie, Tex. There are 
twelve theological seminaries, the most important 
being Princeton, Auburn (New York), Western 
(Pittsburg), Lane (Cincinnati), and McCormick 
(Chicago). 

The Presbyterian Handbook for 191 5 does not 
give statistics by States or Presbyteries. Its sta- 
tistics for the whole Church are as follows : 

Synods 40 

Presbyteries 295 

Ministers 9,536 

Churches 10,130 

Churches organized i79 

Churches dissolved no 

Members added on examination 93467 

Members added on certificate 59,390 

Members dismissed, etc 51,212 

Members restored 8,355 

Members, suspended roll 50,484 

Members deceased 16,594 

Communicants 1,458,085 

Baptisms on confession 36,916 

Baptisms, infants 34,9i9 

Sunday school members 1,318,628 

This branch of Presbyterlanism has its greatest 
membership in the States of Pennsylvania, New 
York, Ohio, New Jersey, Illinois, and Indiana, in 
the order named. 

The Presbyterian Church, U. S. (Southern Pres- 
byterian). — In 1861 the Old School Assembly, meet- 
ing in Philadelphia, adopted resolutions of loyalty 
to the Union and pledged the support of all its min- 
isters and Churches to the Federal government. 

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HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

This action caused the Presbyteries in the Southern 
States to withdraw, and at a meeting held in Au- 
gusta, Ga., in December, 1861, the Assembly of the 
Presbyterian Church in the Confederate States of 
America was organized. About 75,000 members, 
including 10,000 colored members, constituted the 
new body. In 1863 a union was effected with the 
United Synod of the Presbyterian Church. Some 
of the border Presbyteries and one or two independ- 
ent bodies were absorbed, adding some 35,000 mem- 
bers. After the failure of the Confederacy, the 
Church took the name of the Presbyterian Church 
in the United States. 

The Southern Presbyterians have a publishing 
house in Richmond, Va., and theological schools and 
colleges at Richmond, Columbia, S. C, Clarksville, 
Tenn., Austin, Tex., and in other States. The 
Church expends annually about $500,000 for for- 
eign missions and $350,000 for home mission work. 
This Church has its greatest strength in North 
Carolina, Virginia, Kentucky, and South Carolina. 
In 1914 the Church had 1,819 ministers, 3,430 
churches, and 310,602 communicants, reporting a 
gain of 9,831 members for the past year. 

The Cumberland Presbyterians. — ^As a result of 
the great revival which spread over Kentucky and 
Tennessee during the first decade of the nineteenth 
century congregations developed and new ones 
were formed more rapidly than they could be sup- 
plied with well-equipped and ordained ministers. 
To meet the demand the Cumberland (Ky.) Pres- 
bytery ordained and settled many pastors who fell 
below the educational standards of the Church. As 
10 145 



HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

a result of this policy the Cumberland Presbytery 
was dissolved by the Synod of Kentucky (1806), 
of which it was a member, and its offending minis- 
ters were prohibited from preaching. On February 
4, 1810, Finis Ewing and Samuel King, two of the 
proscribed ministers, assisted by Samuel McAdow, 
reorganized the Cumberland Presbytery as an in- 
dependent body at the home of McAdow, in Dick- 
son County, Tenn. The revival continued to 
spread ; and as the Cumberland ministers were much 
in sympathy with it, the new body grew rapidly. 
In 1813 the Cumberland Synod was formed with 
three Presbyteries. A Confession of Faith was 
adopted, based upon the Westminster Confession, 
but the doctrine of the decrees of election and repro- 
bation were rejected. In 1842 Cumberland Univer- 
sity was established at Lebanon, Tenn., with a theo- 
logical department. Other schools were located at 
Waxahachie, Tex., Lincoln, 111., Waynesburg, Pa., 
Marshall, Mo., and Decatur, 111., indicating the ter- 
ritorial growth of the Church, and a publishing 
house was located at Nashville, Tenn. At the time 
of the reunion with the Presbyterian Church, U. S. 
A. (1906), the Cumberland body had twenty-six 
missionaries in the foreign field, besides seventeen 
sustained by the women's board. There were at 
that date 114 Presbyteries, 1,514 ordained ministers, 
2,869 churches, and 185,212 members. Their 
Church property was valued at $7,000,000. 

The reunion with the parent body, while intended 
to embrace the entire Cumberland body, in reality 
produced a division in that Church. About 1,200 
ministers and 90,000 members accepted the union, 

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HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

but more than 300 ministers and nearly 100,000 
members held aloof and have continued the Cum- 
berland Church as a separate body. After much 
litigation most of the Cumberland property passed 
to the Presbyterian Church, U. S. A. The present 
Cumberland Presbyterian Church, though greatly 
handicapped through loss of property and the want 
of funds, has managed to survive the "union" and 
is gradually reorganizing and increasing its forces. 
The last reports show 929 ministers, 1,600 churches, 
and 122,000 members. 

The United Presbyterian Church.-— This Church 
was organized at Pittsburgh, Pa., in 1858, and Pitts- 
burgh and vicinity still constitute its field of activity. 
It is a distinct Presbyterian body in this country, 
being descended by one line from the Covenanters 
of Scotland and by another from the Free Church 
of Scotland, and the elements which formed it were 
mainly from Scotland. It accepts the Westminster 
standards, but differs from other Presbyterian 
bodies in opposing secret societies, observing 
"close" communion, and in using only the book of 
Psalms in Church music. Until 1881 instrumental 
music was forbidden in public worship. Statistics 
for 1914: Ministers, 1,167; churches, 1,126; mem- 
bers, 148,220. 

The Reformed Presbyterian Synod. — Formed in 
1743 by Scotch Covenanters. Members of this 
Church do not vote in political elections, neither 
enlist in the army nor serve on juries. On the ques- 
tion of these civic duties the Synod was divided in 
1833, and the General Synod of the Presbyterian 
Church was formed. They are found chiefly in 

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HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

Pennsylvania. The two Synods have 11,842 mem- 
bers. 

The Welsh Calvinistic is the same as the Church 
in Wales and was planted in this country by Welsh 
immigrants. It has in this country (1914) 14,374 
communicants. 

The Associate Reformed Synod of the South was 
formed in 1821 and has 14,821 members, found 
mainly in the Carolinas. 

Other Presbyterian organizations are the Asso- 
ciate Church of North America, with less than 1,000 
members; the Cumberland Presbyterian, Colored, 
having in 1906 18,000 members (membership at 
present unknown) ; and the Reformed Presbyterian 
Church in the United States and Canada, with a 
membership of 398. 

The various Presbyterian bodies of the world 
have 4,054,276 communicants, including those in 
mission lands.* The Bulletin of the Federal Coun- 
cil of the Churches for 191 5 gives the total com- 
municants for all Presbyterian bodies in the United 
States as 2,083,617. 

"The Presbyterian Church stands, as it has stood 
during its entire history, for the unconditional sov- 
ereignty of God, for the Bible as the only infallible 
rule of faith and life, for simplicity of worship, rep- 
resentative government, a high standard of Chris- 

*No Presbyterian publication can be found which gives the 
denominational statistics for the world or in all countries. 
The figLires are compiled from articles in the "New Schaff- 
Herzog Encyclopedia" and the "New International Encyclo- 
pedia." 

148 



HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

tian living, liberty of conscience, popular education, 
missionary activity, and true Christian catholicity." 
(Presbyterian Handbook.) 

The Westminster Confession and the Larger and 
Shorter Catechisms form the doctrinal standards of 
nearly all Presbyterian bodies, but all do not agree 
in their interpretation of these standards. The 
Presbyterian Church, U. S. A., has from time to 
time amended and modified the Confession, though 
it "still is substantially as first adopted." The most 
important changes were made in 1903, when six 
chapters of the Confession were amended and two 
chapters were added, bearing respectively on "The 
Holy Spirit" and "The Love of God and Missions." 
A Declaratory Statemerrt, issued .at the same time 
and published in the Confession of Faith, says : 

While the ordination vow of ministers, ruling elders, and 
deacons, as set forth in the Form of Government, requires 
the reception and adoption of the Confession of Faith only 
as containing the System of Doctrine taught in the Holy 
Scriptures, nevertheless, seeing that the desire has been for- 
mally expressed for a disavowal by the Church of certain 
inferences drawn from statements in the Confession of Faith 
and also for a declaration of certain aspects of revealed truth 
which appear at the present time to call for more explicit 
statement, therefore the Presbyterian Church in the United 
States of America does authoritatively declare as follows : 

First, with reference to Chapter III. of the Confession of 
Faith, that, concerning those who are saved in Christ, the 
doctrine of God's eternal decree is held in harmony with the 
doctrine of his love to all mankind, his gift of his Son to 
be the propitiation for the sins of the whole world, and his 
readiness to bestow his saving grace upon all who seek it; 
that, concerning those who perish, the doctrine of God's 

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HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

eternal decree is held in harmony with the doctrine that God 
desires not the death of any sinner, but has provided in 
Christ a salvation sufficient for all, adapted to all, and freely 
offered in the gospel to all; that men are fully responsible 
for their treatment of God's gracious offer; that his decree 
hinders no man from accepting that offer; and that no man 
is condemned except on the ground of his sin. 

Second, with reference to Chapter X., Section 3, of the 
Confession of Faith, that it is not to be regarded as teaching 
that any who die in infancy are lost. We believe that all 
dying in infancy are included in the election of grace and 
are regenerated and saved by Christ through the Spirit, who 
works when and where and how he pleases. 

The Presbyterian polity has the following char- 
acteristic features: The Session, which is the local 
Church court, consists of the pastor or a minister 
as moderator and one or more elders, called ruling 
elders, chosen from the congregation. The Presby- 
tery consists of all ministers and one ruling elder 
from each congregation within a certain district. 
The Synod is over a group of Presbyteries and is 
composed of ministers and elders chosen from the 
Presbyteries. The General Assembly completes the 
system and is composed of ministers and elders 
chosen by the Presbyteries. The General Assem- 
bly meets annually. 

There is but one order in the ministry, the pres- 
byter, or elder, who is called a teaching elder in dis- 
tinction from the ruling elder, who is a layman. 
Candidates are ordained to the ministry and in- 
stalled as pastors by the Presbytery. Deacons are 
lay officers in the Church charged with supervision 
of its temporal affairs. 

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HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

PROTESTANT EPISCOPALIANS. 

The Church of England provided clergymen for 
the colonists in America, who formed parishes 
among them and instituted the Anglican worship. 
The Church of the mother country became the es- 
tablished religion in the colonies of New York, New 
Jersey, Virginia, South Carolina, and Georgia. In 
Massachusetts the Anglican Church was not al- 
lowed until it came in "at the point of the bayonet" 
by royal proclamation. But the Church never 
gained the footing in New England that it held in 
the middle and southern colonies. The American 
branch of the Church during the colonial period was 
under the nominal jurisdiction of the Bishop of 
London, who, however, never visited the colonies 
nor provided any adequate disciplinary oversight 
for them. 

During the War of the Revolution many of the 
Anglican clergymen fled the country, leaving their 
parishes vacant. In Virginia, where at the outbreak 
of hostilities there had been ninety-one clergymen, 
only twenty-eight remained at the close of the war. 
But the Toryism so general among the clergy was 
in striking contrast to the patriotism of the larger 
part of their parishioners. From the body of the 
membership of this Church came two-thirds of the 
signers of the Declaration of Independence, the 
commander in chief of the American armies, after- 
wards first President of the United States, and 
nearly all the statesmen who laid the foundation of 
the republic. 

The Church of England in the colonies became 
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HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United 
States. The organization of the new Church was 
completed at Philadelphia in 1789. The movement 
for the organization of a separate Church was begun 
at a meeting of clergymen from New York, New 
Jersey, and Pennsylvania, held in 1784 at New 
Brunswick, N. J. A call was issued for a general 
convention to meet the following year. State con- 
ventions were held which organized dioceses and 
appointed delegates to the convention. But all the 
States were not represented in the convention, and 
the organization was not completed. In the mean- 
time the clergy of Connecticut elected a bishop, the 
Rev. Samuel Seabury. He failed to obtain recog- 
nition by the Church of England, and in 1784 he 
visited Scotland, where he was consecrated by three 
bishops of the Scottish Episcopal Church. Three 
other bishops were elected by State diocesan con- 
ventions — namely. Dr. Samuel Provoost, of New 
York, Dr. William White, of Pennsylvania, and Dr. 
David Griffith, of Virginia. Bishops White and 
Provoost were consecrated by the English Bishop 
In London in 1787. The convention of 1789 recog- 
nized the consecration of Bishop Seabury, and the 
Church was fully organized with bishops of the 
Scottish and English "succession." A constitution 
was adopted and a prayer book formulated, which 
was, essentially the same as the English prayer 
book. The position of the Church, as declared in 
the preface to the prayer book, was that "this 
Church is far from intending to depart from the 
Church of England in any essential point of doc- 
trine, discipline, or worship." Its identification 



HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

with the English Church in the popular mind stood 
in the way of Episcopal progress in this country 
for nearly a generation. The twenty clergymen 
and sixteen laymen in the organizing convention 
of 1789 were in 181 1 increased by only five clerical 
and four lay representatives. But with the organi- 
zation of dioceses in the newer Western States a 
missionary spirit took hold of the Church, and its 
expansion after 1832 was very rapid. The Episco- 
pal convention of that year took account of about 
six hundred clergymen. Three years later the num- 
ber had increased to 763, and in 1838 it had reached 

951. 

The Civil War threatened the integrity of the 
Church. The dioceses in the seceded States con- 
sidered themselves forced to ecclesiastical separa- 
tion, but declared that, "though now found within 
different political boundaries, the Church remains 
substantially one." The same view was taken by 
the Church in the Northern States. There was a 
complete reunion after the war. The formation of 
the Reformed Episcopal Church in 1873 produced 
the only permanent schism which has occurred in 
the history of the Church. 

The doctrinal position of the Episcopal Church 
is based upon the Apostles' and Nicene Creeds, 
together with the Thirty-Nine Articles of the 
Church of England. The Church considers itself 
"a possible center and rallying point for the reunion 
of the widely varying forms of Protestant Chris- 
tianity in America." A movement looking toward 
conciliation began as far back as 1853, but it did 
not find definite expression until 1886, when the 

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HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

House of Bishops set forth as "an irreducible mini- 
mum" the following position as a basis for the res- 
toration of unity among the divided forces of Prot- 
estantism: (i) The Holy Scriptures of the Old and 
New Testaments as the revealed word of God; (2) 
the Nicene Creed as a sufficient statement of the 
Christian faith; (3) the two sacraments, baptism 
and the Lord's Supper, ministered with unfailing 
use of Christ's words of institution and of the ele- 
ments ordained by him ; (4) the historic episcopate 
locally adapted in the methods of its administration 
to the varying needs of the nations and peoples 
called by God into the unity of his Church. 

The supreme judicial and legislative body of the 
Church is the General Convention, which meets 
triennially. It is composed of two houses — the 
House of Bishops, consisting of all the bishops of 
the Church, and the House of Deputies, composed 
of clerical and lay delegates from the various dio- 
ceses. Every measure to become a law must be 
passed by both houses and must receive the con- 
currence of both orders in the House of Deputies. 
Each diocese holds an annual convention, composed 
of all the clergy and lay delegates from each parish, 
the resident bishop being the presiding officer. The 
diocesan conventions legislate for the internal af- 
fairs of each diocese under certain restrictions. 
Each diocese has also a standing administration 
committee. There are three orders in the ministry — 
bishops, priests, and deacons. Bishops are elected 
by diocesan conventions, but their election must be 
confirmed by a majority of all the diocesan standing 
committees and of the bishops. The bishop resides 

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HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

within his diocese, licenses lay readers, ordains 
priests and deacons, administers the rite of confir- 
mation to members, and is required to visit every 
parish in his diocese at least once in three years. 
The affairs of the local Church are in charge of the 
rector, who is chosen by the vestry of the parish, 
usually after conference with the bishop. The 
vestrymen are trustees of local Church property. 
Wardens have charge of the records and finances 
of the Church. A vestry meeting consists of the 
vestrymen and at least one warden. 

At the forty-fourth General Convention, which 
met in New York in 1913, the question which ex- 
cited the deepest interest was that relating to 
Christian unity. A movement to strike out the word 
"Protestant" from the Church name as sectarian 
made such headway that the proposal was re- 
ferred to a commission which shall report at the 
next Convention. 

Columbia University (originally King's College), 
New York, is the leading educational institution of 
the Church. It is nonsectarian, with the exception 
that its president must be a member of the Episco- 
pal Church. Trinity College, Hartford, Conn., Ken- 
yon College, Gambier, Ohio, Hobert College, Ge- 
neva, N. Y., the University of the South, Sewanee, 
Tenn., and Lehigh University, South Bethlehem, 
Pa., are other important institutions of the Church. 
There are about sixteen theological schools, the 
General Theological Seminary, New York, being the 
leading one. Missionary work is carried on in 
Africa, Cuba, Mexico, China, Japan, Brazil, and on 
the Continent of Europe. 

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HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

The Church has its greatest strength in the fol- 
lowing States, in the order named : New York, Penn- 
sylvania, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Connecticut, 
Maryland, and Virginia. The report for 1914 
credits it with 5,546 ministers, 7,922 churches, and 
1,015,248 communicants, a gain for the year of 
28,641. 



REFORMED EPISCOPAL. 

The Reformed Episcopal Church was organized 
in New York City December 2, 1873, with eight 
clergymen, including one bishop and twenty lay- 
men. The bishop was George David Cummins, 
who had been assistant bishop of the diocese of 
Kentucky until in November of that year, when he 
resigned his office and withdrew from the denomi- 
nation. Cummins became the first bishop of the 
new Church ; but the Rev. Charles Edward Cheney, 
of Chicago, was elected Bishop of the West at the 
meeting in New York and was consecrated by Cum- 
mins. 

The new Church justified the separation on the 
ground of the alleged growth of sacramentarianism 
and sacerdotalism in the parent body, "the substi- 
tution of the Roman dogma and rites for the . . . 
Reformed doctrine and Protestant liturgical wor- 
ship," and it was alleged that the Protestant Epis- 
copal Church had departed from the beliefs and 
practices held during the early days of American 
history. The new Church holds that the episcopate 
is not a separate order in the ministry, but that 
bishops are primus inter pares. It repudiates the 



HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

dogma of apostolic succession and rejects "as er- 
roneous and strange doctrine that the Church of 
Christ exists in only one order or form of ecclesiasti- 
cal polity." The title of priest is rejected, and only 
two orders are recognized in the ministry — presby- 
ter, or elder, and deacon. 

The Church for 1913 reported three bishops, 
eighty-three ministers, eighty churches, and 10,800 
communicants, a gain of four hundred communi- 
cants for the year. The movement for reform has 
a considerable following in England, where the 
Church was introduced in 1877. The English 
branch had in 1910 one bishop, twenty-eight min- 
isters, and 1,990 communicants. 

EpiscopaHan adherents for the world, including 
the Church of England and its branches in Scot- 
land, Ireland, and the colonies, are estimated 
(World Alamac, 1914) to number 32,000,000. The 
number of communicants is as follows : 

England and Wales (1901) 2,223,207 

United States (1914) 1,026,048 

Canada (1913) 1,043,017 

Australasia ( looi ) 1,509,750 



REFORMED BODIES. 

There are four bodies constituting the Reformed 
group in this country, two of Dutch descent and 
two of German. 

The history of the Reformed Church in Holland 
is the history of the Reformation in that country. 
Holland gave to the Reformation its first martyrs, 
the monks John Esch and Henry Voes having been 

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HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

burned at Brussels in 1523 for their evangelical 
preaching. The Spanish rulers of the Netherlands 
resorted to the severest measures to crush the ris- 
ing spirit of religious liberty, and under the Duke 
of Alva, who was sent to crush the revolt, accord- 
ing to Grotius, a hundred thousand Protestants lost 
their lives during his six years' rule (1567-73). 
The rise of the Dutch Republic, under William of 
Orange, accomplished the severance of the northern 
provinces from Spanish and Catholic rule and made 
way for the establishment of the Dutch Reformed 
Church. The first Synod was held at Embden, out- 
side the Netherlands, on account of Spanish perse- 
cutions. The University of Leyden was established 
soon afterwards. 

While the Dutch Reformation got its first im- 
pulse from Luther, the movement soon came under 
the influence of Calvin and the Swiss reformers. 
The Synod of Dort (1618-19) condemned Arminian- 
ism and adopted canons which were rigorously Cal- 
vinistic. In 1648, at the Peace of Westphalia, the 
Reformed faith became the established religion of 
Holland. The Dutch Reformed Church is a mem- 
ber of the Alliance of Reformed Churches through- 
out the World Holding the Presbyterian System. 
The branches of this Church in various parts of the 
world have grown up from Dutch immigration. 
There are more than 500,000 communicants of 
various Dutch bodies in South Africa. 

The Reformed Church in America. — Dutch set- 
tlers in New Amsterdam organized a Church in 
1628 under the pastorate of the Rev. Jonas Michsel- 
ius. This Church still exists as the wealthy Col- 

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legiate Church, with numerous buildings and four- 
teen ministers. Many churches erected on the Hud- 
son by Dutch settlers are still standing after two 
centuries. German immigrants holding the Re- 
formed faith and other elements have entered into 
the growth of the Church in America. In 1792 
the Church set up an organization independent of 
the Church in Holland, but has continued to adhere 
to the standards of the parent Church. The Church 
gave its indorsement to the Westminster Catechism 
in 1837. While in polity the Church is Presby- 
terian, its terminology differs from the Presbyterian 
denominations. It has Consistories, Classes, Pro- 
vincial Synods, and General Synods, correspond- 
ing to the Sessions, Presbyteries, Synods, and Gen- 
eral Assemblies of the Presbyterians. The Church 
has about two hundred and twenty-five mission- 
aries in foreign fields. It has colleges located at 
New Brunswick, N. J., in Michigan, and other lo- 
calities. The Church is strongest in the States of 
New Jersey, New York, and Michigan. Statistics 
for 1914: Ministers, 775; churches, 707; members, 

123,143- 

Christian Reformed Church. — ^This body is a 
branch of a Church of the same name in Holland 
which separated from the State Church of Holland 
in 1835. In 1882 and again in 1889 its ranks were 
increased by the absorption of small bodies which 
had split off from the Reformed Church in America. 
It has a seminary and college at Grand Rapids, 
Mich. Membership, 34,648. 

Reformed Church in the United States. — This 
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Church, commonly called the German Reformed, 
was planted in America by German immigrants 
from the Palatinate and other districts in Germany 
where the Reformed faith, in distinction from the 
Lutheran, is held. The Church in this country was 
under the supervision of the Church of Holland 
until 1793, when an independent organization was 
formed. Many of the German Churches in New 
York went into the Dutch Reformed body ; but, not- 
withstanding these losses, the German Reformed 
has greatly outstripped its sister Church in growth, 
due mainly to immigration. The German body is 
also more aggressive in home mission work. For- 
eign mission work is carried on in China, Japan, 
and in other parts. The Church has numerous 
schools and colleges. In doctrine and polity the 
German Reformed is similar to the Presbyterian 
bodies, and it is a member of the Presbyterian Al- 
liance ; but in government the Church is more demo- 
cratic and more rights are reserved by the congre- 
gations. The worship is more liturgical. About 
three-fourths of the congregations use the English 
language in their Church services. Statistics for 
1914: Ministers, 1,217; churches, 1,770; members, 
312,660. 

The Hungarian Reformed. — This body in this 
country is made up exclusively of Magyar, German, 
and Slavonic immigrants from Hungary. The 
Church belongs to the Alliance of Reformed 
Churches and is Presbyterian in doctrine and polity. 
Membership, 8,500. 

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HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

ROMAN CATHOLICS. 

The full name of this communion is "The Holy, 
Catholic, Apostolic, and Roman Church.'* It con- 
stitutes the largest body of Christians in existence, 
numbering within its fold or holding under its sway 
about one-half of the Christian population of the 
world. 

The historical development of Roman Catholicism 
is usually divided into three stages, as follows: (i) 
The age of Greco-Latin Catholicism, extending 
from the end of the Apostolic Age, or the second 
century, to the eighth century ; (2) the age of Latin 
Catholicism, as distinct and separated from Greek 
Catholicism, extending from Charlemagne to 
Luther; and (3) Modern Romanism, extending 
from the Reformation (or from the Council of 
Trent) to the present time. 

Concerning the first period, the historian Schafif 
says: "This is the common inheritance of all 
Churches. It is the age of the fathers, of the ecu- 
menical creeds and councils, and of the Christian 
emperors." But note : "Many of the leading fea- 
tures of Roman Catholicism, as distinguished from 
Protestantism, are already found in the second and 
third centuries and have their roots in the Judaizing 
tendencies combated by St. Paul. The spirit of 
traditionalism, sacerdotalism, prelacy, ceremonial- 
ism, asceticism, and monasticism was powerfully at 
work in the East and the West, in the Nicene and 
post-Nicene ages, and produced most of those doc- 
trines, rites, and institutions which are to this day 
II 161 



HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

held in common by the Greek and Roman 
Churches.'* 

The second period witnessed the division of the 
Church into the Eastern, or Greek, Church, and the 
Western, or Roman. The Roman Church was very 
active during this age in bringing under its sway 
the tribes of Central and Northern Europe. The 
period is characterized also by the scholastic theo- 
logical discussions, by the growth of papal absolu- 
tism, by the Crusades, and by the revival of monas- 
ticism and the rise of the mendicant orders. It was 
this age that gave rise to the abuses within the 
Church which brought on the Protestant Reforma- 
tion. 

The period of modern Romanism was ushered in 
by the geographical discoveries made by Catholic 
nations in the New World. These opened up new 
fields of conquest for the Church and enabled her 
to retrieve in a large measure the losses sustained 
by the Protestant secession. The missionary ac- 
tivity of the period accounts for the Catholic conti- 
nent of South America and the extensive footing 
gained by the Catholics in the early history of 
North America. Missionary operations extended 
also to the Far East. As early as 1549 Francis 
Xavier founded missions in Japan, which grew 
within thirty years to number 200,000 Christians ; 
but bloody persecutions wiped out all but a scat- 
tered remnant of these early converts. Later mis- 
sions in China met a similar fate. 

This extension of the sway of Rome was due to 
the zeal of the Jesuits, or Society of Jesus, an order 
founded by Ignatius Loyola about 1538. This so- 

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HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

ciety is also credited with preventing the collapse 
of the Roman Catholic Church in European coun- 
tries where Protestantism had gained a foothold 
by originating what is known as the Catholic 
Counter-Reformation. The Jesuits raised the stand- 
ard of education and morality, and by their en- 
thusiasm and piety they revived thewhole Church. 
Their vows included an obligation to go on any 
mission for, or to obey any behest of, the pope, and 
wherever they operated they were regarded as the 
special upholders of the papacy and the most faith- 
ful defenders of the Catholic faith. Political in- 
triguing led to the suppression of the society by 
an edict in 1773; but the order was revived in 1814. 
There are now about sixteen thousand Jesuits 
throughout the world, of whom about one-half are 
priests. The influence of the order may be esti- 
mated from a statement recently made by a Cath- 
olic archbishop that "the whole Church has been 
Jesuitized." The head of the order is known as the 
"black pope" and resides in Rome. 

The Counter-Reformation, inaugurated by the 
Jesuits, culminated in the Council of Trent, held 
with intermissions from 1545 to 1563. It was con- 
vened in response to a long and widespread demand 
for reform in the Church "in head and members." 
But its belated assembling found most of the ardent 
advocates of real reform gone with the Protestants, 
and the reactionary party was left in control. Every 
attack on the papal power failed, as did also every 
effort to incorporate liberal or evangelical doctrines 
in the creed of the Church. The Council fixed the 
stigma of heresy upon Protestantism and consoli- 

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HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

dated the Church by fixing a standard of orthodoxy 
and accomplishing a better organization and dis- 
cipHne. The decisions and decrees of the Council 
were formulated by a commission of cardinals under 
the direction of Pope Pius IV. and were proclaimed 
by him in 1564 as the creed of the Church. This 
creed, known as the Creed of Pius IV., together 
with the dogmas proclaimed from the Vatican dur- 
ing the last century, constitutes the doctrinal sys- 
tem of modern Romanism. 

The nineteenth century was a memorable one in 
Roman annals. Not only were important additions 
made to the Roman creed, but the position of the 
papacy was greatly altered. Political movements 
in Europe brought an end to papal temporal sov- 
ereignty by the absorption of the papal kingdom in 
Italy. But, on the other hand, the spiritual preten- 
sions of the Bishop of Rome attained a recognition 
never before known. Pope Pius IX. assumed the 
functions of a council and in 1854 proclaimed the 
dogma of the Immaculate Conception, thus on his 
own responsibility deciding a question of belief on 
which the doctors of the Church were divided. In 
1864 he issued an Encyclic, together with a Syllabus 
of Errors, "aimed at the basic ideas of modern 
civilization and culture." But the climax was 
reached in 1870 — the year in which the last vestige 
of temporal power outside the walls of the Vatican 
disappeared — when a Vatican council, over the 
heads of strong opposition in the Church and in the 
council itself, ratified the decree of papal infalli- 
bility, and so fixed it as a dogma of the Church. 
This action is regarded as the triumph of Jesuitism. 

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HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

But while recent times have seen the perfection 
of the ecclesiastical and creedal system of the 
Church, they have witnessed also the decay in posi- 
tion and prestige of the Church of Rome on her 
own ground. In Italy, until the middle of the last 
century, the clergy, including the religious orders, 
were exempt from temporal jurisdiction, and all pub- 
lic, educational, and charitable institutions were in 
their hands. But in 1866 all religious orders not 
engaged in teaching, preaching, or nursing the sick 
were dissolved and their property alienated by the 
State. In 1873 ^^^ Roman Catholic theological facul- 
ties in State universities were abolished. In France 
complete separation of Church and State became 
effective by legal enactment in 1906, when, among 
other provisions, all appropriations for public wor- 
ship were repealed, and all churches, chapels, epis- 
copal palaces, and parsonages were declared the 
property of the State. In Portugal there is a strong 
movement away from the Church. A powerful 
anticlerical party has developed whose program is 
a complete separation of Church and State. In 
Spain, the seat of the Inquisition, there is declared 
to be a gradual, silent revolt of the great body of 
intelligent laymen against the Roman system. "Of 
the four or five million adult males in the country," 
says Joseph McCabe In "Decay of the Church of 
Rome," "only about one million are Roman Catho- 
lics, and these are for the most part illiterate." 
Says another observer: "There are tens of thou- 
sands In the country whose only use for the church 
is at marriages, christening, or burial services. 
This is the feeling that Impresses the visitor to 

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HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

Spain when he sees the few scattered worshipers in 
the magnificent cathedrals in the cities and hears 
the contemptuous, jesting manner in which the 
average intelHgent Spaniard refers to the liaisons 
of the priests, the worship of saints and images, the 
miracles wrought by relics, the pretentious cere- 
monies of the Church, or the solemn assumptions 
of the Roman pontiff." 

But, as in the days of the Reformation, the 
Church is exerting itself to make up in other direc- 
tions its losses at home. In Germany the Catholic 
revival has been very marked; but it is in the 
English-speaking countries, in England and her 
colonies and in the United States, that the Church 
IS putting forth her greatest efforts for adherents 
and power. 

The Roman governmental system centers in the 
pope, who is regarded by this communion as the 
supreme head of Christendom and vicar of Christ 
on earth. Romanists have constructed a theory of 
the origin of the papacy which gives it divine sanc- 
tion and clothes it with unearthly authority. Ac- 
cording to this theory, the apostle Peter was set at 
the head of the Church by Jesus Christ and invested 
with the keys of the kingdom of heaven; Peter 
became the first bishop of the Church at Rome ; and 
"the holy and blessed Peter . . . lives, pre- 
sides, and judges to this day and always in his suc- 
cessors the bishops of the Holy See of Rome, which 
was founded by him and consecrated by his blood. 
Whence whosoever succeeds to Peter in this See 
does by the institution of Christ himself obtain the 
primacy of Peter over the whole Church. Hence 

i66 



HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

we teach and declare that by the appointment of 
our Lord the Roman Church possesses a superiority 
of ordinary power over all other Churches. . . . 
This power of jurisdiction of the Roman pontiff is 
immediate, to which all, of whatever rite and dig- 
nity, both pastors and faithful, both individually 
and collectively, are bound ... to submit not 
only in matters which belong to faith and morals, 
but also in those that appertain to the discipline 
and government of the Church throughout the 
world."* The supreme authority of the pope, it is 
claimed, extends over the temporal as well as the 
spiritual affairs of the world. Cardinal Gibbons 
maintains that the temporal power is necessary for 
the ''independence and freedom of the pope in the 
government of the Church. The holy father must 
be either a sovereign or a subject. There is no 
medium." The doctrine of the temporal sover- 
eignty of the pope received its authoritative enun- 
ciation in the famous bull of Boniface VIII., Unam 
Sanctam, from which the following is quoted : "We 
are instructed by the Gospels that there are in his 
power [the pope's] two swords — viz., the spiritual 
and the temporal." (Reference is made to Luke 
xxii. 38.) "Therefore both are in the power of the 
Church, both the spiritual and the material sword, 
. . . and the temporal authority should be sub- 
ject to the spiritual." The bull concludes with the 
declaration: "Then to be subject to the Roman pon- 
tiff we declare, say, define, and pronounce to be 

*Schaff, "Creeds of Christendom," quoted in Foster's "Fun- 
damental Ideas of the Roman Catholic Church." 

167 



HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

absolutely necessary to every human creature to 
salvation." 

The pope resides in the Vatican at Rome, "keep- 
ing a court of about eighteen hundred persons and 
maintaining the Curia for the government of the 
Roman Catholic Church at large." By Italian law 
the pope is independent, and his person is sacred 
and inviolable, like that of the king. The honors 
of sovereignty are due him, and he is allowed to 
keep a bodyguard. Many nations send representa- 
tives to the Vatican as to a foreign nation, and the 
Vatican has "apostolic delegates" at many foreign 
capitals. The pope is elected by the cardinals, who 
rank next to him in honor and share with him in 
the government of the Church. A full college of 
cardinals consists of seventy members. They are 
chosen by the pope and are consecrated by him, 
when they take the distinctive scarlet dress and the 
red cap. A majority of the cardinals live in Rome, 
where they are at the heads of various departments 
of the Church called congregations, as the Congre- 
gation for the Propagation of the Faith. 

Next in order are archbishops, who are over prov- 
inces, and bishops, who are heads of dioceses, all 
of whom are appointed by the pope. Priests and 
deacons are in charge of parishes and missions. In 
all matters of administration the laity are excluded. 
The educational and charitable work of the Church 
is under the control of teaching and hospital orders, 
of which there are a large number. 

The doctrinal system of Rome, as defined by the 
Council of Trent, consists in a reaffimation of the 
Nicene creed and ten additional articles. In this 

i68 



HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

formula tradition is accorded equal authority with 
Scripture as a source of doctrine. The position of 
the Church is stated on original sin and justifica- 
tion; justification is by faith and works conjoined. 
The seven sacraments are fixed and defined — name- 
ly, baptism, confirmation, the Lord's Supper, pen- 
ance, extreme unction, orders, and matrimony. The 
sacraments not only symbolize the grace, but they 
convey the grace signified. The creed affirms the 
doctrine of transubstantiation and the sacrificial 
nature of the mass, the invocation of saints, the 
worship of relics, the doctrine of purgatory and that 
the souls confined in purgatory are helped in their 
purification by the prayers and masses of the living, 
the worship of images, the virtue of indulgences, 
the supremacy of the Roman Church and the au- 
thority of the Roman pontiff, and everything con- 
trary to the decrees of the council are condemned 
and anathematized. The creed declares in effect 
that only those "who freely profess and truly hold 
the true CathoHc faith can be saved." All priests 
and teachers of the Church, as well as all converts 
from other faiths, must subscribe to this creed with 
an oath. The two papal dogmas, that of the Im- 
maculate Conception and of Papal Infallibility, are 
articles of faith and are as binding as the Triden- 
tine Confession. The Article of the Immaculate 
Conception asserts that "the Blessed Virgin Mary, 
by a singular grace and privilege of Almighty God, 
in view of the merits of Christ Jesus the Saviour of 
mankind, has been preserved free from all stain of 
original sin." 

"In the veneration of saints, relics, images, and 
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HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

the worship of the Virgin Mary pagan Rome still 
lives in its ancestor and image cults and its female 
divinities." Mariolatry is also partly derived from 
the Roman theological view of Christ, which loses 
sight of his humanity in its conception of his awful 
divinity, and the need became felt in the popular 
mind for a mediator between man and Christ. 
Apocryphal writings, filled with supernatural 
legends of the Virgin, have also contributed to the 
rise of her worship. 

In Roman Catholic worship the mass holds the 
central place. The doctrine of transubstantiation 
teaches that the elements of bread and wine in this 
service are transformed into the real substance of 
Christ, he appearing entire in each of the elements. 
The sacrament is carried on with much solemnity, 
calculated to impress the minds of the worshipers 
with the feeling that the elements are supernatural. 
Certain orders pursue what is known as perpetual 
adoration of the eucharist, in which one of their 
number is kept in constant adoration and worship 
before the elements of the mass. All services 
throughout the world are conducted in the Latin 
tongue. Singing is restricted to chants by priests 
or choirs. 

The attitude of Rome toward modern institutions 
was defined by Pope Pius IX. in the Syllabus of 
Errors. Eighty "errors and heresies" are con- 
demned, among which are socialism, communism, 
secret societies, Bible societies, and "other pests of 
this description." The principles of civil and reli- 
gious liberty and the separation of Church and State 
are condemned. The Syllabus asserts the exclusive 

170 



HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

right of the Roman Church to recognition by the 
governments of the world and denounces all other 
religions as unlawful. It declares the power of the 
Roman Church to enforce its system, even by coer- 
cion, and claims for Rome supreme control over 
education, science, and literature. Gladstone at- 
tacked this pronouncement on the ground that it 
was "a declaration of war against modern civiliza- 
tion and progress." 

The spread of the Roman Catholic faith in Ameri- 
ca began when missionaries accompanied the Span- 
ish explorers soon after the discovery of the conti- 
nent. The oldest Catholic establishment in what 
is now the United States was planted at St. Augus- 
tine, Fla., about 1565. Soon after this missionaries 
preached to the Indians and founded missions in 
Texas, New Mexico, and California. Jesuit mis- 
sionaries accompanied the French explorers down 
the St. Lawrence about the region of the Great 
Lakes and down the Mississippi basin. Catholic 
settlements in America by immigration began with 
the settlement of Maryland, the only colony set- 
tled by Catholics, in 1634. In nearly all the colonies 
laws were enacted against the Catholics, but full 
toleration came to all religions with the setting up 
of the nation. In 1790 the Rev. John Carroll was 
consecrated the first bishop for America, and Balti- 
more became his first diocese. The number of 
Catholics in the United States at this period has 
been estimated at 25,000. This number soon began 
to receive large accessions by immigration from Eu- 
rope, and Immigration has given the Roman Church 
in this country Its largest growth. In the earlier 

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HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

part of the country's history the heaviest immigra- 
tion was from Northern and Western Europe, in- 
cluding Ireland, which is almost entirely Catholic. 
During later years the largest influx of foreigners 
has been from Southern and Southeastern Europe, 
where the Catholic population predominates. 

The strength, the rate of growth, and the activity 
of the Roman Catholic Church in the United States 
at the present time is a matter of much comment, 
and in some quarters there is a Catholic issue in 
politics and much anti-Catholic feeling.* The Of- 
ficial Catholic Directory for 1913 gives the follow- 
ing figures for the numerical standing of the Church 
in this country: Archbishops, 16 (of whom three 
are cardinals); bishops, 100; priests, 17,945; 
churches with resident priests, 9,500; missions with 
churches, 4,812; seminaries, 85, with 6,169 students; 
colleges for boys, 230; academies for girls, 684; 
parishes with schools, 5,256, with 1,360,761 pupils 
attending; orphan asylums 288, inmates 47,415; 
total children in Catholic institutions, 1,593,316; 
homes for the aged, 108; total Catholic population, 

I5>i54,i58. 

Concerning the figures for Catholic "population," 
Dr. H. K. Carroll, in a note of explanation to the 
Bulletin of Church Statistics of the Federal Coun- 
cil of Churches, says Catholic population "includes 
with communicants the unconfirmed baptized — 
that is, children who have not been admitted to 
their first communion. The rule adopted in the 

*For a comprehensive view of the anti-American aspects of 
Roman Catholicism, see Dr. Josiah Strong's "Our Country," 
Chapter V, 

172 



HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

census in 1890 and followed in 1906 deducts fifteen 
per cent from Catholic population and sets down 
the remaining eighty-five per cent as communi- 
cants." Children are admitted to the communion 
between the ages of nine and eleven years. In the 
religious census of 1906 the department requested 
Catholic authorities to report actual communicants 
only in order that the reports for all Churches might 
be uniform. The census bulletin for 1906 accord- 
ingly reports only Catholic communicants, the num- 
ber for that year being 6,231,417. 

The Catholic Directory gives a list of the twenty- 
five States having the largest Catholic population. 
These are as follows : 

New York . 2,884,723 Texas 313,000 

Pennsylvania 1,684,220 Iowa 277,095 

Illinois 1,461,634 Rhode Island 270,000 

Massachusetts 1,395,892 Maryland 261,000 

Ohio 781,179 Indiana 239,238 

Louisiana 585,000 Kentucky 166,070 

Michigan 582,500 New Mexico I40,573 

Wisconsin 578,195 Kansas 130,700 

New Jersey 565,000 New Hampshire 130,081 

Missouri 470,000 Maine 124,400 

Minnesota 461,950 Nebraska ii5,959 

Connecticut 438,483 Colorado 109,182 

California 410,000 

The reported increase for the year 1913 is 138,- 
000. The figures for the United States and all its 
possessions make a total of 23,329,000. The Philip- 
pines supply 7,131,000 toward this total. The 
United States (and possessions) stands up toward 
the head of the list of Catholic strongholds of the 
world, as the following figures show: Italy, 30,- 

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HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

500,000; Germany, 23,821,000; Austria, 23,796,000; 
United States, 23,329,000; Spain, 19,503,000; British 
Empire, 12,968,000. The population of France is 
nominally Roman Catholic, Belgium and Portugal 
are Catholic, and there is a large Catholic following 
in Russia (Poland). The total Roman Catholic 
population of the world is given at 172,860,000 
(World Almanac). 

Other Catholic Bodies. 

Old Catholics. — The Old Catholics were organ- 
ized in Germany in 1870 as a result of the Vatican 
decree of papal infallibility. The opponents of the 
decree, headed by Dr. Ignace von DolHnger, a 
Munich professor, gathered at Nuremberg and is- 
sued a protest. The leaders in the movement were 
promptly excommunicated. An Old Catholic con- 
gress was called, which met in Munich in 1871, at- 
tended by about three hundred delegates from near- 
ly all the countries of Northern and Western Eu- 
rope. The movement spread rapidly in Germany, 
Switzerland, Holland, and Austria. There are 
members of the body also in France, Spain, Portu- 
gal, and Mexico. The dogmas of papal infallibility 
and of the immaculate conception are rejected, as 
well as the doctrine of priestly absolution. Confes- 
sion, indulgences, and the veneration of saints and 
images have been greatly modified. Priests are al- 
lowed to marry. The Church has bishops, chosen 
by the clergy and people together. The chief gov- 
erning body is the synod. In the United States the 
Church has taken root among the Polish and Bo- 

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HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

hemian populations, taking the name among the 
Poles of the Independent Catholic Church and 
among the Bohemians, particularly in Ohio, of the 
National Catholic Church. The Polish Catholics 
number about 16,000. 

Uniate Churches. — ^These are scattered groups of 
Churches which acknowledge the Roman pontiff, 
but are permitted to retain their traditional beliefs 
and practices. They are found mainly in South- 
eastern Europe, Asia, and Africa, and take different 
names according to the language or rite used in 
their worship; as the Greek, Arminian, Syrian, or 
Coptic in distinction from the Roman, or Latin, rite. 
Their priests are allowed to marry, and in other 
respects they differ from the customs of Rome. 
Their government is provided for by a special com- 
mission at Rome. Adherents of these Churches in 
the United States number about ten thousand, their 
presence being due wholly to immigration. 

Reformed Catholics. — ^These originated in New 
York City in 1879, when certain priests left the 
Church of Rome on account of their disbelief in the 
Roman sacramental system, embraced the Protes- 
tant doctrines, and began evangelistic work. Rev. 
James O'Connor became the leader of the move- 
ment. He publishes the Converted Catholic. The 
new faith preached by these reformers — and they 
labor chiefly among Roman Catholics — is that sal- 
vation is dependent upon faith in Christ alone and 
that the Holy Spirit is the only teaching power in 
the Church. The movement has a growing follow- 
ing in Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, 
and Ilinois, numbering about 3,500. 

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HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

SALVATION ARMY. 

The Salvation Army owes its origin to William 
Booth and his wife, Catherine Mumford Booth, 
who is called the mother of the Salvation Army. 
William Booth was successively a street preacher 
in London, an evangelist in the ranks of the Meth- 
odist New Connection, and a circuit pastor. In 
i86i he severed his connection with the Methodists 
and became an independent evangelist. His wife, 
whom he married in 1855, had already become a 
preacher and had often occupied her husband's pul- 
pit. Together they now engaged in mission work 
in the notorious East End of London, where they 
found the destitute, vicious, and neglected classes. 
They called their work simply the Christian Mis- 
sion. It took the name of Salvation Army in 1878 
from the statement used by Booth in describing it. 
*'The Christian Mission," he said, "is a salvation 
army of converted working people.'* Booth had 
long been called the "general" on account of his 
oversight of the work; and after long and careful 
study of the manuals of the British army, the mis- 
sion forces were organized on a military basis. 

In 1880 the work was extended to America, and 
it has spread to other lands, until now it is repre- 
sented in fifty-eight countries and colonies and 
preaches its gospel in thirty-four languages. It re- 
ports for the world 9,415 corps and outposts, 1,142 
social institutions, 572 day schools, and 10 naval 
and military homes. The Army issues from its own 
presses 81 periodicals, besides other publications. 

The report for the United States for the year end- 
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HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

ing September 30, 1913, is as follows: Eight hun- 
dred and sixty-nine corps and outposts, reporting 
47,921 converts. The Army supports ninety-one 
hotels, one hundred and twenty-four industrial 
homes, twenty-eight rescue and maternity homes, 
and five children's homes. Temporary relief was 
afforded to 691,597 persons outside of industrial 
homes and hotels. Summer outings were given to 
7,791 mothers and 41,292 children. The Army dis- 
tributed 1,800,645 pounds of ice and 5,010,227 pounds 
of coal. There are sixteen posts in the slums of the 
cities, where the sick are visited and persons tem- 
porarily assisted to the number of 80,639. There 
are also prison corps, which visited 19,564 prison- 
ers. In 1912 197,099 indoor meetings were held and 
150,055 outdoor meetings. In the same year Christ- 
mas dinners were served to 281,867 persons and 
Thanksgiving dinners to 20,744. 

The operations of the Salvation Army are con- 
fined to the cities and consist of evangelistic work, 
aiming at conversion, and social, aiming at better- 
ment of the condition of the destitute and the crimi- 
nal classes. Their converts may join their own 
ranks, but many of them go into the various 
Churches. The Army has no ecclesiastical ma- 
chinery, and Church terminology is not used. Its 
head is called commander in chief (the present 
commander is Bramwell Booth, son of the founder). 
The organization is completed by a chief of staflf, 
stationed at headquarters ; a lieutenant general, who 
travels and inspects divisions ; a general, command- 
ing a division; a captain, commanding a single 
corps, who has under him a lieutenant, a color ser- 
12 177 



HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

geant, a paymaster sergeant, and other minor of- 
ficers. All officers wear uniforms, and places of 
meetings are called barracks. A book of doctrine 
and discipline, prepared by the founder, outlines the 
doctrines to be preached, which are in the main 
Methodistic, and containing rules and regulations 
for the government of the body. 

The headquarters of the Salvation Army are in 
London. The headquarters for the American work 
are in New York, with Miss Evangeline Booth in 
charge. There is also a Department of the West, 
with headquarters in Chicago. 

Volunteers of America. — This is an organization 
formed in New York City in 1896 by Ballington 
Booth, who was commander of the American 
work of the Salvation Army. Owing to disagree- 
ments with his father. Gen. William Booth, con- 
cerning the work in this country, Ballington Booth 
and his wife, Maude Ballington Booth, separated 
from the Salvation Army and organized the Vol- 
unteers of America. Its organization is based 
upon that of the United States army, and its 
government is more democratic. The Volun- 
teers are more closely related to the Churches, 
and they administer the sacraments of the Lord's 
Supper and baptism. The work is among the same 
classes and along the same lines as that of the Sal- 
vation Army, and the forces of the new organiza- 
tion have extended to all the principal centers of 
the United States. An additional feature is the 
Volunteer Prisoners' League for reforming prison- 
ers, with branches in thirty State prisons. The 
headquarters are in New York City. 

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HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

SCHWENCKFELDERS. 

A SMALL body of followers of Kasper von 
Schwenckfeld, a German religious teacher of 
Luther's time. About two hundred Schwenck- 
felders emigrated to America in 1734 and settled 
in Pennsylvania. The sect has increased but slow- 
ly and still is found only in the counties in Penn- 
sylvania where the first members settled. 

Among the peculiar customs of the Schwenck- 
felders is a service of prayer and exhortation over 
newly born infants as they are presented at church 
for the first time. They are opposed to war, secret 
societies, and the oaths of law. They support mis- 
sions at home and contribute to foreign missions 
through other denominations. 

The body has five ministers, six churches, and 
1,039 members. 



SOCIAL BRETHREN. 

This body was formed in Illinois after the Civil 
War by members of various denominations who 
were opposed to politics in the pulpit. "It is quite 
evident," says Dr. Carroll, ''that the denomination 
was originally formed of Baptists and Methodists, 
the ideas of both of these denominations and some 
of their usages being incorporated in the new body." 
But Methodist beliefs and usage seem to predomi- 
nate, as among their beliefs is that of the possibility 
of apostasy; also baptism may be by pouring, 
sprinkling, or Immersion, and open communion is 

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HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

practiced. They hold that "ministers are called of 
God to preach the gospel and that only." 

The body is found only in Illinois, Missouri, and 
Arkansas. It had by the census of 1906 fifteen min- 
isters, seventeen churches, and 1,262 members. 



SPIRITUALISTS. 

The first spiritualistic "phenomena" known in 
this country began to occur about 1837 among the 
Shakers in New York, who claimed to receive com- 
munications from Ann Lee, the departed founder 
of the society. The first demonstrations that ex- 
cited public attention were in the home of John D. 
Fox, at Hydersville, near Rochester, N. Y., whose 
daughters, the "Fox sisters," are generally credited 
with being the first mediums. These manifestations 
began in 1848. It was an era of religious unrest, of 
strange doctrines, visions, and miracles. Belief in 
ghosts and witches was common, and prophets 
were numerous. William Miller, the Adventist 
prophet, had summoned a doomed world to judg- 
ment, publishing proofs that the end would come 
about the year 1843. Only a few miles from the 
Fox home Joseph Smith, guided and attended by 
visions of angels, had brought the Mormon Bible to 
light. The popular mind was in a state of feverish 
expectancy, ready to believe any new thing. The 
announcement of the wonders performed by the Fox 
sisters attracted crowds of people to the seances, 
and spiritualism immediately excited widespread 
interest and investigation. Circles were formed, 

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HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

mediums discovered, and lecturers traveled and dis- 
coursed on the latest discovery. 

The new mystery expressed itself in raps and 
knockings, moving of furniture, etc., which were in- 
terpreted as the language of the spirits of departed 
persons endeavoring to communicate with the liv- 
ing. Other methods of communication were 
adopted, as slate-writing. The movement became 
so infected with charlatanism and fraud as to be 
discredited by the more intelligent observers. 

The study of psychology, hypnotism, telepathy, 
and kindred subjects has revived an interest in 
spiritualism, both in this country and Europe, and 
the subject has attained more respectability on ac- 
count of some of the eminent scientists and investi- 
gators whose interest it has engaged. The late 
William James, in this country, and Sir William 
Crookes, Sir Oliver Lodge, and Alfred Russel Wal- 
lace, in England, have showr; a friendly interest in 
the subject of spiritualism. 

Spiritualists in this country have formed them- 
selves into societies, with national and State as- 
sociations, and have issued a statement of beliefs. 
Their central tenet is a belief in the actuality of 
spiritual communicatons. They deny the person- 
ality of God, holding that God is an infinite intelli- 
gence expressed by the physical and spiritual phe- 
nomena of nature. They reject the doctrine of the 
Trinity, the deity of Christ, and the supreme au- 
thority of the Scriptures. They believe in the con- 
scious existence of the spirit after death and in eter- 
nal progress. In common with the Universalists, 
they believe that every individual will attain to su- 

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HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

preme wisdom and happiness. They have ordained 
ministers, lay ministers, and associate ministers, or 
mediums. They have a ritual for use in public 
meetings, baptisms, funerals, etc. 

The National Spiritualists' Association was or- 
ganized in 1893, with headquarters at Washington, 
D. C. There are twenty-four State associations. 
They report six hundred active working local socie- 
ties and four hundred societies which meet at irregu- 
lar intervals. There are thirty-two camp meeting 
associations, 200 churches and temples, 1,500 public 
mediums, and 500 ordained ministers. As to the 
number of actual adherents of the cult, reports 
vary widely. The religious census of 1906 takes 
account of 45,000 Spiritualists. The Bulletin of the 
Federal Council of Churches (1914) reports 200,000. 
The statement of the National Association of 
Spiritualists claims "membership of avowed Spirit- 
ualists, 600,000; unidentified with organized socie- 
ties, but believers in the philosophy and phenomena 
of spiritualism and frequent attendants upon pub- 
lic services, 1,500,000 to 2,000,000." This statement 
gives a total valuation of church, temple, and camp 
meeting property of $6,000,000. 

Massachusetts is the banner Spiritualist State, 
followed by New York and Pennsylvania. 



UNITARIANS. 

"Unitarianism," to quote a Unitarian author, "is, 
in general, the religious system of all who affirm the 
unity of God. Specifically, it is the belief of certain 
free Christian Churches and individuals whose re- 

182 



HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

ligious faith is 'the fatherhood of God, the brother- 
hood of man, the leadership of Jesus, salvation by 
character, and the progress of mankind onward and 
upward forever.' " Unitarianism is popularly 
known only in its negative aspects, in its rejection 
of the orthodox views of the Trinity, the person of 
Jesus Christ, and of the authority of the Bible. 

Unitarians point to the Arian views of Jesus, as 
held in the early Church, as essentially in harmony 
with the modern Unitarian position. Unitarianism 
may be traced to the Reformation period, when in 
the theological ferment of the times anti-Trinitarian 
views gained a following. Michael Servetus, in the 
West, assailed the doctrine of the Trinity and was 
burned at the stake in Geneva in 1553. But it was 
Faustus Socinus, coming from Italy and settling in 
Poland in 1575, who became the chief exponent 
of Unitarian doctrines. The central point in the 
Socinian creed was denial of the divinity and atone- 
ment of Jesus Christ. At the close of the sixteenth 
century there were more than four hundred Socin- 
ian churches in Poland. By 1670, however, Uni- 
tarianism had been suppressed in Poland by the 
accession of a Catholic king and the adherents of 
the faith put to death or exiled. 

In the eighteenth century Socinian views leavened 
many Presbyterian and Baptist Churches in Eng- 
land, as well as many of the clergy of the Church of 
England. It was from these communions that the 
first Unitarian Churches were formed. In 191 1 
there were two hundred and ninety-five Unitarian 
churches in England, seven in Scotland, thirty-four 
in Wales, and thirty-eight in Ireland, the Churches 

183 



HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

in Wales and Ireland having been formerly Presby- 
terian. 

Unitarian opinions were held by many of the 
Puritan settlers of New England, and a majority of 
the early Massachusetts Churches finally went over 
to the Unitarian faith. King's Chapel in Boston, 
the first Episcopal church established in New Eng- 
land, in 1787 excluded from its prayer book all ref- 
erences to the Trinity and to the deity of Jesus 
Christ, and, ordaining for its pastor James Freeman, 
a reader who had adopted Unitarian views, the 
Church became the first Unitarian society in Ameri- 
ca. During the early part of the nineteenth century 
the Unitarian controversy — or the Calvinistic con- 
troversy, according as one views it — unsettled 
many of the Congregational Churches in Massa- 
chusetts. The Unitarians directed their criticisms 
mainly against the Calvinistic view of man's fallen 
nature. In 1805 a Unitarian was appointed to the- 
divinity chair of Harvard College, and that insti- 
tution came completely under the control of liberal 
views. In 1819 William Ellery Channing preached 
a sermon at the dedication of a Unitarian church in 
Baltimore which, on account of its "moral argu- 
ment against Calvinism," became a Unitarian 
classic. Within a year one hundred and twenty 
Congregational Churches in New England, among 
them Plymouth Church, founded in 1620, went over 
to Unitarianism. 

The Unitarians as a denomination have rejected 
all suggestions of creed-forming; but the National 
Unitarian Conference has declared that "these 
Churches accept the religion of Jesus, holding in 

184 



HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

accordance with his teaching that practical religion 
is summed up in love to God and love to man." 
Unitarian congregations usually adopt the follow- 
ing covenant : "In the love of truth and the spirit of 
Jesus Christ we unite for the worship of God and 
the service of man." Unitarians are generally in 
agreement on the doctrines of the "pure humanity 
of Jesus," and his "leadership" is accepted, he being 
"a supreme instance of man's religious experience 
of God and an inspiring prophet of a free and spirit- 
ual religion of love to God and man." It is the faith 
of Jesus that is held rather than faith in Jesus. 
The Bible is not a final and infallible guide in re- 
ligious truth, but "a classic record of man's religious 
experience," and is to be interpreted in the light of 
reason and conscience. "It is not proper to say that 
we reject the Bible," says a Unitarian minister, "as 
it is not proper to say that we reject a fish because 
we discard the bones." Unitarians reject the ortho- 
dox doctrines of the fall of man, of the natural cor- 
ruption of his nature, and of the atoning or sacri- 
ficial character of the death of Christ as a means of 
man's recovery. They discover no need of a media- 
tor between God and man. But they affirm the 
natural dignity of human nature and the kinship of 
man to God. Salvation is the enjoyment of com- 
munion with God, "the soul fulfilling its destiny of 
enjoying the constant indwelling presence of God 
with a consciousness like that of Christ." It is to 
be sought and gained "through the exercise of the 
soul's highest powers and the repression of all low 
desires." 
There is no later report of Unitarian numbers 

185 



HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

than the census bulletin of 1906. They are credited 
with 531 ministers, 477 churches, and 70,542 mem- 
bers. The body has theological schools at Meade- 
ville, Pa., and Berkeley, Cal. The Harvard Divinity 
School was Unitarian from 1817 to 1878, since which 
time it has been undenominational. About one- 
half of the Unitarian membership of the country is 
in Massachusetts. New York, California, New 
Hampshire, and Maine has each a large member- 
ship. 



UNITED BRETHREN. 

This denomination is often confounded with the 
Moravian Brethren, or Unitas Fratrem; but the two 
bodies are separate and distinct. While they bear 
similar names and both originated among German 
people, the Unitas Fratrem originated in Moravia 
and the LTnited Brethren arose in the United States, 
although the former had a footing In this country 
more than half a century before the latter organi- 
zation took its rise. 

Philip William Otterbein came to America in 
1752 as a missionary of the German Reformed 
Church. Soon afterwards he obtained what he re- 
garded as his first Christian experience, and his 
ministry took on a deeply spiritual and evangelistic 
character. Revivals followed his preaching, and he 
was joined by many of his converts in extending 
the work. The movement continued to spread, and, 
on account of opposition to the work in his own 
Church, conferences were called to provide means 
for conserving the results. At a conference held 

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HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

In Frederick County, Md., in 1800 a Church organi- 
zation was formed, taking the name of the United 
Brethren in Christ. Otterbein and Martin Boehm 
were elected bishops. In 1815 a general confer- 
ence was held, at which a discipline and a Confes- 
sion of Faith were adopted. During the first years 
of the movement the work was confined mainly to 
the German people of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, 
and Maryland ; but in later years the Church spread 
westward and was extended among English-speak- 
ing people. Now the German language is used in 
only about four per cent of the congregations. 

The founders of the United Brethren Church 
were in intimate association with the pioneers of 
Methodism in America. Otterbein assisted at the 
ordinations of Methodist ministers at the Baltimore 
Conference in 1784, and in his evangelistic labors 
he preached the same doctrines and proceeded in 
much the same way as the Methodist preachers. 
In doctrine and polity the Church which he organ- 
ized is Methodistic, and the body is represented in 
the Methodist ecumenical councils. The Church 
has bishops, presiding elders, exhorters, class lead- 
ers, and stewards ; also quarterly, annual, and gen- 
eral conferences. Bishops are elected for a four- 
year tenure. Since 1889 women are eligible for the 
ministry. But one order of ministers, that of elder, 
is recognized. The mode of baptism is left to the 
choice of the candidate. Foot-washing is practiced, 
but is not generally observed. Ministers are ap- 
pointed to their charges by a stationing committee, 
and presiding elders are elected by the annual con- 
ferences. 

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HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

A new constitution and a revised Confession of 
Faith were adopted by the General Conference in 
1889. Provision was made for lay representation 
in the General Conference, and a rule was set aside 
forbidding membership in secret societies. A bishop 
and fourteen delegates, taking offense at the new 
constitution, withdrew from the body and organized 
another General Conference, which claimed to rep- 
resent the sentiment of the Church. The division 
extended throughout the Church. Litigation over 
property division followed, resulting in a decision 
against the seceding body. The Churches are now 
known as the "New Constitution" and the "Old 
Constitution" branches. The New Constitution 
body has foreign missions in Germany, Japan, 
Canada, and Africa, ten colleges, and a theological 
seminary and a publishing house at Dayton, Ohio. 
The Church is divided into about fifty Annual Con- 
ferences and mission districts, has (1914) 1,953 
ministers, 3,583 churches, and 322,044 members, 
showing a gain for the year of 13,457. The head- 
quarters of the Old Constitution Church are at 
Huntingdon, Ind., where they have a college and 
publishing house. This branch has 307 ministers, 
503 churches, and 20,972 members. 

The United Brethren are strong in the States of 
Ohio, Pennsylvania, Indiana, West Virginia, Illi- 
nois, Iowa, and Kansas. 



UNIVERSALISTS. 

The Universalists as a religious denomination are 
a decadent body. The reports for 1912, the latest 

188 



HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

figures obtainable, compared with the census re- 
ports of 1906, show a decrease in number of organi- 
zations of two hundred and forty-seven. There has 
been a shght increase in membership during the 
period. But, according to a UniversaHst writer, 
"that the course of the Church as a separate body 
is nearly run is a not uncommon opinion." On the 
other hand, it is claimed that UniversaHst opinion 
is largely on the increase and that there are more 
Universalists outside the denomination than inside. 
The claim is made that all Christian Scientists hold 
the UniversaHst doctrine; that the same is true of 
more than one-half of the Unitarians, one-third of 
the Episcopalians, and many Congregationalists ; 
and that there are numerous believers in this doc- 
trine in nearly all denominations. It is known that 
all the British and Continental Unitarians are also 
Universalists in opinion. 

Universalists, while holding a great variety of 
doctrines, are agreed in the belief that all souls will 
be finally reconciled to God and made righteous. 
This universal salvation is to be accomplished by 
Jesus Christ, the great revealer of God, whose work 
in the world is to bring men into harmony with 
God. There is no place found in UniversaHst the- 
ology for a satisfaction theory of Christ's death or 
for a work of atonement. Salvation is not exemp- 
tion from the consequences of sin, but from the dis- 
position to sin. Punishment is an inevitable se- 
quence of sin, is divinely appointed, and is remedial 
and beneficent; whence it follows that it cannot be 
endless, for endless punishment would be vindictive. 
Souls that are not made holy in this life will be 

189 



HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

visited by punishment and discipline in the next 
life, calculated, as it is in the present life, to re- 
cover and to restore the soul. It is held that there 
are many "losing fights" in this life and that souls 
are "lost" in the sense of being excluded after death, 
as here, from the presence of God; but it is main- 
tained that the soul "will fight until it wins" and 
that throughout its conflict it will have the as- 
sistance of the heavenly powers. 

The Winchester Profession of Faith, adopted at 
Winchester, N. H., in 1803, sets forth the essential 
principles of the Universalist faith as embracing 

1. The universal fatherhood of God. 

2. The spiritual authority and leadership of his 
Son, Jesus Christ. 

3. The trustworthiness of the Bible as containing 
a revelation from God. 

4. The certainty of just retribution for sin. 

5. The final harmony of all souls with God. 
During the first one hundred years Universalist 

churches were independent and congregational. 
Since 1870 a general convention, which meets bien- 
nially, has had authority to govern the Churches in 
matters of fellowship, ordination, and discipline. 
There are now also State conventions, meeting an- 
nually. A system of State and general superintend- 
ency has been adopted. The sacraments are ob- 
served, the mode of baptism being left to the choice 
of the candidate. The denomination carries on mis- 
sionary work in Japan and maintains four colleges 
and five academies, also three theological schools. 

In 1912 there were 702 ministers, 709 churches, 
and 51,716 members, found mainly in New York 

190 



HANDBOOK OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 

and Massachusetts, with Maine, Illinois, and Ohio 
next in membership. The report for 1914 shows a 
decrease of fifty-two ministers and a gain of eight 
churches and two hundred and eighty-four mem- 
bers for the two years. 

191 



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